KUNIYOSHI - 100 Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets - c

** Yojō of Shin (Yu Rang), China's archetypal loyal avenger, waiting under the bridge, a strong Kuniyoshi warrior design from the Hundred Poets series ** Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), signed Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎国芳画) Title: Poem by Motoyoshi Shinnō: Yojō of Shin (元良親王 晋の豫譲) Series: Ogura nazorae hyakunin isshu (小倉擬百人一首), The Hundred Poets Compared, no. 20 Date: Japan, c. 1845–48 (late Edo period) Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō (Dansendō) Carver: Hori Fusajirō (彫工房次郎) Text: Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員) Format: Ōban, approx. 36 × 24 cm CONDITION Strong impression with excellent colors across the sheet. The paper has a very light backing (Edo Paper). Couple of small minor repairs. Very good overall! Please check the images! THE SCENE Poem 20 of the anthology is by Prince Motoyoshi (890–943), a love poem written after a secret affair had been discovered: Now that I am in distress, it is all the same. Like the channel markers of Naniwa, I will meet you even if it costs me my life. The poem plays on miotsukushi, the channel markers in Naniwa Bay, which also reads as "to exhaust oneself completely." Kuniyoshi pairs it with Yu Rang (Yojō in Japanese), a retainer in China's Warring States period whose story is told in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. When his lord Zhi Bo of Jin was destroyed by Zhao Xiangzi, Yu Rang swore revenge. He lacquered his body to disfigure his skin and swallowed charcoal to change his voice so no one would recognise him. He then hid under a bridge his enemy had to cross. Zhao's horse shied, and Yu Rang was caught. Before he died he asked for Zhao's robe, struck it with his sword, and then took his own life. The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (MAK) describes Yojō here dressed as a beggar beside the bridge, wearing a headscarf and drawing his sword from its scabbard. Kuniyoshi turns a poem about a lover's devotion into a picture of a retainer's devotion to his lord: both are willing to give up everything. Tanekazu's text on the sheet praises Yojō for enduring endless hardship to avenge his lord and leaving behind a name as a great loyal retainer that will never fade. About the Taiheiki Heroes Series: The Ogura nazorae hyakunin isshu is one of the few series in which the three leading masters of the 1840s worked side by side: Kuniyoshi designed 51 sheets, Hiroshige 35 and Kunisada 14. Instead of portraying the classical poets themselves, each print pairs one of the hundred poems with a scene from history, legend or kabuki, and the viewer is invited to work out the connection, almost like a riddle. A short narrative text on each sheet tells the story behind the picture. Kuniyoshi's contributions are known for their strong figure compositions and storytelling, and each sheet joins a classical poem to a dramatic tale.

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