Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)
The legendary Emperor Yûryaku (418-479), the 21st ennô of Japan, kills a huge boar with his bare hands while hunting at the waterfall of Mt. Katsuragi. This event is believed to have taken place in the year 461.
Title: I (Boar) – Yûryaku-Tennô (Emperor Yuryaku)
Series: Buyû mitate jûnishi (Heroes Representing the Twelve Animals of the Zodiac)
Signature: Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga
Seal: Toshidama
Publisher: Mintoya Kohei (Minatoko, Kinsendô), Edo
Date: c. 1840/41
Size: Vertical Chûtanzaku, 37 x 12,8 cm (overall)
Fine impression and colours, with strongly visible wood grain of the printing blocks. An early impression with bokashi in top. An unobtrusive horizontal centrefold smoothed and professionally restored at the lateral margins. Verso a few light red transfer stains, hardly visible from the front. Overall very nice condition. Rare print. Ill. Ann Yonemura, Masterful Illusions, 2002, no. 91. Robinson, The Warrior-Prints, 1982, p 17.12.
Cf. also MFA Boston, Bigelow Coll., no. 11.16577; British Museum no. 2008,3037.01009; Honolulu Museum of Art, Michener Coll., no. 14411 (without bokashi); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation, no. 1963.30.1797; Smithsonian (Freer/Sackler), van Biema Coll. No. S2004.3.168.12; Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), No. 831G14 (without bokashi).
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