Description
Rare woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshitsuya (歌川芳艶), a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) who followed in the footsteps of the master becoming famous for his fine works of the musha-e (武者絵) type, that is “images of warriors”. The scene, as we read in the inset at the top right, depicts “Shiki Rinsen who, in a perilous pass, mortally wounds Ikita” (志木林仙難所にて伊木田を打殺す), who led a punitive expedition against Rinsen, since he had refused to supply corvée labour for the construction of the castle of the daimyo Konishi Yukinaga (小西行長).
The print is taken from the “Fifty-four Battle Scenes from the Story of Hisago” (瓢軍談五十四場), the successful series of the artist who depicted the events of the battles fought by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉), the famous daimyo of the Sengoku period (戦国時代), the second of the three “great unifiers” (三英傑) of Japan.
The work was made in 1864 by the publisher Tsutaya Kichizo Koeido (蔦屋吉蔵紅英堂) and, despite the right signs of aging including small holes also due to binding, is in good condition.
