Hiroshige · Soga monogatari zue · Soga Brothers ·...

** A museum-quality impression of one of Hiroshige's less often seen late narrative designs. Like the best sheets of the series, it combines his mature landscape style with a dramatic story scene, with small figures set into the distance behind the main group. The colours keep their full vibrancy and the paper is creamy and firm. ** 歌川広重 — UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797–1858) Ichimanmaru and Hakoōmaru Brought to Execution at Yuigahama (一万丸・箱王丸) From: Illustrated Tale of the Soga Brothers (曾我物語圖會, Soga monogatari zue) Text: Abridged narrative by Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員, 1807–1858) Date: c. 1845–46 (Kōka 2–3) Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō (伊場屋仙三郎, Dansendō) Censor: Muramatsu (村松), round seal beside the signature Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), polychrome (nishiki-e) Format: Ōban tate-e, [38 × 26 cm] Signature: Hiroshige ga (広重画) CONDITION A strong, full-coloured impression with a crisp keyblock. The colours keep their full vibrancy. The paper is firm and supple with minor creases along the bottom margin consistent with normal handling. Overall very good. The Scene — Two Boys Spared on the Beach The text by Ryūkatei Tanekazu sets out the episode. After Minamoto no Yoritomo had destroyed the Taira, he still held a grudge against the bloodline of Itō Nyūdō, the boys' grandfather. Ichimanmaru and Hakoōmaru, the two small sons of the murdered Kawazu Sukeyasu, were therefore taken to the beach at Yuigahama in Kamakura to be beheaded. The lords Hōjō, Wada, Chiba and Sasaki pleaded with Yoritomo for their lives. Then Chichibu (Hatakeyama) Shigetada, famous for his wisdom and courage, argued his case with precedents from Japanese and Chinese history and won their pardon. The name labels on the sheet identify the two boys, the executioner Banba Chūta (番場忠太), and an official envoy (上使, jōshi) arriving on horseback with the reprieve. The print captures the moment before the sword falls, and the boys' survival is what makes the whole revenge story possible. The Soga Revenge — Eighteen Years in the Making The Soga monogatari grew out of a real vendetta of the early Kamakura period. In 1176 Kawazu Saburō Sukeyasu was killed in an ambush arranged by his kinsman Kudō Suketsune over a disputed inheritance. His widow remarried into the Soga family, and the boys grew up under the Soga name. The elder came of age as Soga Jūrō Sukenari and the younger as Soga Gorō Tokimune. In 1193, during Yoritomo's great hunt at the foot of Mount Fuji, the brothers broke into Suketsune's quarters at night in a rainstorm and killed him. Jūrō died in the fighting that followed, and Gorō was captured and executed. In the Edo period Soga plays opened the kabuki season in Edo every New Year, and the brothers stood as models of filial devotion. The Series — A Landscape Master Tells a Story The Soga monogatari zue retells the tale in a sequence of upright ōban sheets, issued around 1845–46 mainly by Ibaya Senzaburō, with texts by the popular fiction writer Ryūkatei Tanekazu. It belongs to the years after the Tenpō Reforms of 1842, when prints of actors and courtesans were restricted and historical and moral subjects gave publishers a safe field. What makes the series distinctive is how much of each sheet Hiroshige gives to the setting. The landscape carries the mood of the scene as much as the figures do.

Utropspris:SEK 3,898.55

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