| ICHIYUSAI KUNIYOSHI (1797 - 1861) YORISADA, DURING HIS WAR WITH TAKEDA SHINGEN, BREAKS THE WATER-STORAGE JAR IN HIS CASTLE Woodcut, from the series 'Thirty-six famous battles', c. 1848. Robinson 1982, S61/7. Signed 'Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga', sealed with the 'kirimon'. Censors: 'Mera' and 'Murata'. Very good impression and colours; lightly soiled, a horizontal center fold, surface abrasions along the right margin, margins partially trimmed. Backed. 'Oban', 370 x 250 mm. The son of a silk-dyer, at the age of fourteen Kuniyoshi joined the Utagawa school, then headed by Toyokuni I. Kuniyoshi achieved his commercial and artistic breakthrough in 1827 with the first designs of the series 'the 108 heroes of the Suikoden'. This series, based on an old Chinese novel from the 14th century, was about rebels and bandits. The artist designed many other successful prints of warriors and heroes and was even nicknamed 'Warrior print' Kuniyoshi, but in fact he contributed to every branch of 'Ukiyo-e': theatrical prints, legendary and historical subjects, women, landscapes, comics, 'surimono', fan-prints and book-illustrations. Since the early 1840s, Kuniyoshi prints show some influence of Western style painting and printmaking in several ways: the use of the Western perspective, the way he designed clouds and the way he tried to show the effects of light and shadow. |
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