Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed nowBy subscribing, you are agreeing to the privacy policy. Unsubscribe anytime.
Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Ancient Art / KUNICHIKA
Artist: Toyohara Kunichika 豊原国周 (1835–1900) Title: Hachirō Tametomo 八郎為朝 Series: Ichikawa Danjūrō Engei Hyakuban 市川団十郎演芸百番 Date: Colophon dated February, Meiji 30 (1897) Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō 福田熊次郎, Nihonbashi-ku, Hasegawa-chō 19, Tokyo Block carver: Nisei Horiei 二世彫栄 (Horiei II) Signature / seals: Signed Kunichika hitsu 國周筆 in a cartouche, with the artist's red ring seal Format: Ōban tate-e, approx. 36 × 24 cm, full sheet with margins Condition Very good colour and impression with generous margins. The paper is firm and subtle with minor toning. Very good overall! Please check the images! THE PRINT Danjūrō IX appears here as Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo (1139–1170), the eighth son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi. Tametomo was remembered as the greatest archer of his age. Legend gave him one arm longer than the other and a bow that several ordinary men together could not draw. He fought on the losing side in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156. After his capture, the victors cut the sinews of his arm so he could never shoot again, and exiled him to Ōshima in the Izu islands. The legends did not end there. In the most famous one, a fleet of the Taira came to take him, and Tametomo, his strength recovered, sank a warship with a single arrow before taking his own life. Kyokutei Bakin carried the legend further in his novel Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki (1807–1811), illustrated by Hokusai. In the novel, Tametomo escapes to the Ryūkyū Islands, where his son founds the royal line. The novel made Tametomo one of the great heroes of Edo popular culture. For the Meiji audience, the part suited Danjūrō IX, who was the leading actor of history plays of his time. The series was commissioned from Kunichika by Fukuda Kumajirō together with Gusokuya Kahei and began in 1893. Sheets were released gradually over several years, and the last designs appeared in 1903, after the artist's death. It is widely regarded as the high point of Kunichika's late work. The designs were printed with costly materials and techniques. The Honolulu Museum of Art holds an impression of this design.
Estimate:$168.78
To the auctionView all items fromCatawikiorAncient Art
Estimate:
$168.78
EGYPTIAN BRONZE INLAID APPLIQUE OF URAEUS - MUSEUM EXHIBITED
06/21/2026
$1,854.44
Est: $1,341.83
OCT 17 | 10:00 PM
Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed now$309.43
