Description
Original woodblock print of vertical koban (小判) format, rare specimen of the series “Lives of Valiant Tiger Warriors” (侠勇祥虎伝) by the artist Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾). The work portrays the samurai Kanae Tanigoro (金江谷五郎) holding his bloody sword in his right hand and, in the left, the head of Uji no Joetsu (宇治の常悦), a commoner who rose to prominence as an expert on martial arts.
In the text written in the print, the artist details some circumstances of the scene which, we learn, is the epilogue of a night duel which lasted for about thirty minutes inside the Sabae Myojin Shrine (鯖江明神), in the ancient Echizen Province (越前国).
The print, produced in August 1870 by the publisher Omiya Kyujiro (近江屋久次郎), owner of Kiyudo (亀遊堂), despite the right signs of aging and a point of slight paper thinning in the upper left corner, is in overall very good condition.
