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Lot 71 FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTION
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)
SANUKI-NO-IN KENZOKU O SHITE TAMETOMO O SUKUU ZU [RETIRED EMPEROR SUTOKU SENDS HIS FOLLOWERS TO RESCUE TAMETOMO]
Closed15 October 2014
Price Realised
GBP 22,500
More Information
Specialist note
In this extraordinary and rare design, Kuniyoshi has ingeniously combined three episodes from the same story onto one triptych, whereby Minamoto no Tametomo (1139-70) is shipwrecked on a voyage from Kyushu to Kyoto.
On the left sheet, he is about to commit suicide, when a group of tengu (mythical creatures in the form of half bird, half man) come to rescue him. The centre sheet shows Kiheiji, Tametomo’s retainer, with Tametomo’s son in his arms, on the back of a giant ‘crocodile-shark’. At first the creature tried to kill them, but was pacified and rescued them from drowning. On the right sheet, Tametomo’s wife, Princess Shiranui, in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the storm has thrown herself into the waves.1
1. T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R. Miller Collection, (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 29, p. 84-5.
For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston see www.mfa.org accession number 11.26999-7001 and for another in the British Museum, see www.britishmuseum.org museum number 1906,1220,0.1339.
On the left sheet, he is about to commit suicide, when a group of tengu (mythical creatures in the form of half bird, half man) come to rescue him. The centre sheet shows Kiheiji, Tametomo’s retainer, with Tametomo’s son in his arms, on the back of a giant ‘crocodile-shark’. At first the creature tried to kill them, but was pacified and rescued them from drowning. On the right sheet, Tametomo’s wife, Princess Shiranui, in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the storm has thrown herself into the waves.1
1. T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R. Miller Collection, (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 29, p. 84-5.
For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston see www.mfa.org accession number 11.26999-7001 and for another in the British Museum, see www.britishmuseum.org museum number 1906,1220,0.1339.