Live Auction 13279Asian 20th Century Art (Day Sale) Including a Selection of Japanese Woodblock Prints from Private Collections
UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797–1861)
Lot 511 PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN GENTLEMAN

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797–1861)

Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune and the White Dragon Ghost

Closed25 November 2018

Price Realised

HKD 35,000

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UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797–1861)
Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune and the White Dragon Ghost
Woodblock print, left and middle sheets signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga, right sheet signed Chooro Kuniyoshi ga
Published by Tsujiya Yasubei, circa 1844
Censor seal: Yoshimura (Yoshimura Gentaro)
Oban triptych: each sheet approx. 34.9 x 24.5 cm. (13 ¾ x 9.6/8 in.) (3)
(3)

Sylvia Lacan (1908-1993) and thence by descent to the present owner. Sylvia
Lacan was married to the French intellectual Georges Bataille, then the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Specialist note

Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune was sent by the Emperor to eliminate the monsters hiding in Mount Fuji. This print depicts him having bravely advanced into a cave within the slope of the mountain, where he encounters the goddess and her dragon. Unlike his retainers (who have dramatically been overcome and collapsed on the right), Tadatsune is not afraid, standing defiantly on rocks whilst drawing his sword ready to defend himself, and the goddess praises him for his bravery.