Katsukawa Shunshō (勝川春章) (artist 1726 – 1792)
Taira no Koremori battling with the demon/woman in Momijigari
1780s
4.5 in x 26.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Unsigned
Publisher seal closest to some of those of
Nishimuraya Yohachi, but not listed in Marks.
When this hashira-e entered the Lyon Collection in 2003 is was said to be by Katsukawa Shun'ei (勝川春英: 1762 – 1819) which was stylistically a reasonable assumption. While this composition lacked a signature it still retained most of a publisher's seal for Nishimuraya Yohachi (西村屋与八) in the lower left. The theme was believed to be that of Watanabe no Tsuna fighting off the monster Ibaraki. At least, that is what it looked like from the seller's point of view. However, we noticed certain things about this piece which made up change the subject matter to Taira no Koremori fighting the demon-woman. It was the presence of the maple leaves, momiji (紅葉), that gave it away.
We spent years trying to find another copy of this print in museum collections, searching through auction catalogs, books on Japanese prints, or for anything shown anywhere on the internet, but always came up empty-handed. Then in January, 2025 a gentleman wrote to Mike Lyon from England because he had recently purchased another copy - the only other one we know of so far - and while trying to do more research on his own this one in the Lyon Collection showed up. Both examples had been identified as a struggle between Watanabe no Tsuna and the Ibaraki-doji and both showed the same publisher's seal. Yet they differed in that the one in England was signed in the lower right, Shunshō ga. That prompted the Lyon Collection to look once more at their original invoice and saw that it stated that the unsigned copy had previously been attributed to Shunshō, Shun'ei and even to Koryūsai. The seller chose to represent it as a Shun'ei. Now we know better and one more art historical problem appears to have been solved.
pillar print (hashira-e - 柱絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Nishimuraya Yohachi (西村屋与八) (publisher)