Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Kusatsu (草津): Tawara Tōda (田原藤太) and the Dragon Woman (Ryūjo - 龍女), from the series Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対)
1845 – 1846
9.5 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Ebiya Rinnosuke
(Marks 040 - seal not listed)
Nanushi seal: Mura
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
National Diet Library - a different printing - notice the Dragon Woman's upper robe
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Walters Museum of Art
National Museum of Asian Art
Google maps - Lake Biwa
Museum of Oriental Art, Venice (via Ritsumeikan University)
Ritsumeikan University - Sadayoshi version of Kuniyoshi's original design
British Museum
Pushkin State Museum
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University
The National Gallery, Prague
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Honolulu Museum of Art
Fujisawa Ukiyo-e Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum "The serpent and the centipede – In olden times, when Fujiwara no Hidesato (藤原秀郷), who lived in the first half of the tenth century, crossed the Seta bridge, a big serpent was laying across it. The hero, however, was not at all afraid, and calmly stepped over the monster which at once disappeared into the water and returned in the shape of a beautiful woman. Two thousand years, she said, she had lived under this bridge, but never had she seen such a brave man as he. For this reason she requested him to destroy her enemy, a huge centipede, which had killed her sons and grandsons. Hidesato promised her to do so and, armed with a bow and arrows, awaited the centipede on the bridge. There came from the top of Mikami yama two enormous lights, as big as the light of two hundred torches. These were the centipede’s eyes, and Hidesato sent three arrows in that direction, whereupon the lights were extinguished and the monster died. The dragon woman, filled with joy and gratitude, took the hero with her to the splendid Dragon-palace, where she regaled him with delicious dishes and rewarded him with a piece of silk, a sword, an armour, a temple bell and a bag (tawara) of rice. She said, that there would always be silk left as long as he lived, however much he might cut from it; and the bag of rice would never be empty ‘. As to the temple bell, this was the most precious treasure of the Dragon-palace.” This was the famous bell he gave to the temple at Miidera."
Quoted from Vegder's Blog. (JSV)
****
There are nine prints from this series, Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対), in the Lyon Collection. See also #s 382, 815, 819, 861, 951, 1022, 1095 and 1269.
The curatorial files for the Walters Museum of Art note: "Tawara Toda (Fujiwara Hidesato) on the shore of Lake Biwa with his bow watches the Dragon Princess arise from the water. She is asking him to destroy the giant centipede of Seta."
****
If you click on the image of the print on this page and then enlarge it you will see that dragon has scales in its tail which is submerged below the water.
****
Illustrated:
1) in color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 18, #25.
2) in color in Kunisada's Tōkaidō: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 107, #T78-53.
3) 6 times in color in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada, edited by Andreas Marks, University Press of Florida, 2015, on pages 16, 27, 150-151, and 186.
4) in color in a small reproduction in an online publication, 'Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui – Uma Série Japonesa na Coleção do Museu Calouste Gulbenkian' by Beatriz Quintais Dantas, her master's thesis, no. 53, April, 2021..
5) in a small black and white reproduction in Masterful Illusions, University of Washington Press, 2002, #255, p. 338.
6) in color in Japanese Yōkai and Other Supernatural Beings: Authentic Paintings and Prints of 100 Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Magicians by Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2023, p. 97. This exact print is the one illustrated in this volume.
****
The text reads: 延喜八年秀郷勢田の橋を/過るに龍婦女と化して三上山の/百足を亡し給はれと願ふ よつて/秀郷かの蚣を射る すなはち/其恩として龍宮へ伴ひあまたの宝を/おくる
The translation reads: "In the eighth year of Engi (908), Hidesato was walking across the bridge of Seta when a dragon, transformed into a woman, appeared and asked him to kill the centipede living in Mount Mikami. Hidesato shot an arrow at the centipede and killed it. To thank him for this deed, the woman brought him to the dragon palace and gave him much treasures."
****
The original Tōkaidō was established by the Kamakura bakufu (1192-1333) to run from Kamakura to the imperial capital of Kyoto.
****
The Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui: A collaborative work
Andreas Marks wrote in 'When two Utagawa masters get together. The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada' in Andon 84, November 2008, pp. 37 and 39:
"The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada entered a new period in 1845, when both artists were commissioned to contribute to the series Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui). The Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō is an example of a series where a number of artists were commissioned to contribute complete and individual designs under a specific theme. A few years before, the Kisokaidō series by Hiroshige and Eisen had been published with the same concept. This concept became quite common in the second half of the 1840s until the early 1850s, and sometimes the artists were supported by their disciples who drew inset cartouches.
The main contributor to the Fifty-three Pairs of the Tōkaidō was actually Kuniyoshi with 30 designs, followed by Hiroshige (21 designs), and Kunisada (eight designs)." This series of 59 ōban falls in a period when designers, actors, writers, and publishers had been imprisoned or expelled from Edo in the aftermath of the so-called Tenpō reforms (Tenpō no kaikaku). Only the joint effort of six different publishers made this series possible."
****
About the fan cartouches found at the top of each print in this series
Laura W. Allen wrote about these fan-shaped cartouches on page 9 in 'An Artistic Collaboration: Traveling the Tōkaidō with Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada' in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada: "At the outset someone decided that the publishers would promote their individual brands through the use of different-shaped cartouches... at the top of hte prints in the set: a bean shape (mame) for Ibaya Senzaburō (active 1810s to 1860s), a fan shape (ōgi) for Ibaya Kyūbei (active ca. 1804 to 1850s), two overlapped snowflake roundels (yukiwa) for Kojimaya Jūbei (active 1790s to 1860s), two overlapped round fans (uchiwa for Enshūya Matabei (active 1760s to early 1880s), a stylized shrimp (ebi for Ebiya Rinnosuke (active 1830s to 1890s), and a square (kaku for Iseya Ichiemon (active 1820s to 1860s). The six men were all former members of the fan makers' guild, and they worked in close proximity to each other, sharing or independently operating shops within the same Edo neighborhood, Nihonbashi Horiechō, all within the blocks designated as Itchōme and Nichōme. It was only the dissolution of the guild system during the Tenpō reforms that allowed other craftsmen, such as these former fan makers, to begin publishing single-sheet prints. The Tenpō reforms thus stimulated not only artistic change - in the development of new themes - but also social mobility, as the fan makers came to occupy new terrain with the publishing industry."
Ebiya Rinnosuke (海老屋林之助) (publisher)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)