• Twilight Snow at Ishiyama (<i>Ishiyama bosetsu</i> - 石山暮雪): Suzuki Shigeyuki (鈴木重幸) from the series <i>Eight Views of Military Brilliance</i> (<i>Yōbu hakkei</i> - 燿武八景)
Twilight Snow at Ishiyama (<i>Ishiyama bosetsu</i> - 石山暮雪): Suzuki Shigeyuki (鈴木重幸) from the series <i>Eight Views of Military Brilliance</i> (<i>Yōbu hakkei</i> - 燿武八景)
Twilight Snow at Ishiyama (<i>Ishiyama bosetsu</i> - 石山暮雪): Suzuki Shigeyuki (鈴木重幸) from the series <i>Eight Views of Military Brilliance</i> (<i>Yōbu hakkei</i> - 燿武八景)

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 01/01/1797 – 04/14/1861)

Twilight Snow at Ishiyama (Ishiyama bosetsu - 石山暮雪): Suzuki Shigeyuki (鈴木重幸) from the series Eight Views of Military Brilliance (Yōbu hakkei - 燿武八景)

Print


07/1852
9.875 in x 14.625 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print

Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Enshūya Hikobei
(Marks 055 - seal 21-016)
Date seal: 1852, 7th month
Censor seals: Watanabe and Mera
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - an 1860 Yoshifusa version of this event
British Museum - an 1855 Kuniyoshi version of this scene
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg - ca. 1850 Kuniyoshi of Shigeyuki
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University "Suzuki Saemon Hida no kami Shigeyuki is a marksman who attempts unsuccessfully to shoot Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) during an ambush at Ishiyama. this scene is compared with Lingering snow at Ishiyama from the Eight views."

Quoted from: Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap, p. 108.

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There is an earlier series by Kuniyoshi, the Taiheiki eiyuden, from the late 1840s, which also has a print of Suzuki Shigeyuki laying in wait to ambush Oda Nobunaga, but in that case Shigeyuki is set among reeds in summer and not winter.

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The historical figure Suzuki Shigehide

Elena Varshavskaya in the endnote 28.1 to her volume Heroes of the grand pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyū den, while discussing a different print, said:

"He was an influential person in the Buddhist community of Saiga in Kii province. Along with Buddhist centres Ishiyama Honganji... and Negoro... the community of Saiga had protracted hostilities with Oda Nobunaga. During a ten-year long confrontation (1570-80) between Nobunaga and Ishiyama, Suzuki commanded the artillery of Negoro and Saiga and kept harassing Nobunaga's army. According to the warrior's biography retold on the print, he did not live to see Oda Nobunaga's victory over the Buddhist forces. A biographical dictionary of Japanese warlords of the Warring States period, however, describes the development of the events otherwise. When the resistance of Ishiyama Honganji was crushed, Suzuki Shigehide acted as an intermediary between Honganji and Nobunaga. After Hideyoshi subjugated the province of Kii, Suzuki Shigehide followed him. He is known in Japanese history under the name Saiga Magoichi."

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Illustrated:

1) in Kuniyoshi The Warrior-prints by Basil Robinson, Oxford, 1982, S76, #2.

2) in color in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap, Hotei Publishing with the Society of Japanese Arts, 1998, page 108, no. 96.

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There is another copy of this print in the Pushkin State Museum.

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The text reads: 東風の屋 石山にねらふこふ?しのしら鷹もあし間をわくる雪の夕くれ
Enshūya Hikobei (遠州屋彦兵衛) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)