Description
I have the feeling / I will not return living. / So among the names / of those who died by the bow / I do carve my own (帰へらじと / 兼ねて思へば / 梓弓 / 亡き数に入る / 名をぞとどむる). These are the verses that Kusunoki Masatsura (楠木正行), the brave warrior who kept the flame of loyalist resistance alive during the years of the Nanbokucho period (南北朝時代), composed in the Nyoirinji Temple (如意輪寺) shown here, in Yoshino (吉野), right before he died in the famous battle of Shijonawate (四條畷の戦い), fought in 1348 between the armies of the Northern and Southern Emperors of Japan.
This large oban (大判) format woodblock print was made by the artist Migita Toshihide (右田年英), a talented student of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年), and is taken from the series “Selection of 36 Poems Written by Heroes” (英雄三十六歌撰).
The work, presented here in the edition printed in 1899 by the publisher Sasaki Toyokichi (佐々木豊吉), despite the right signs of aging is in very good general condition.
