Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Saginoike Heikurō (鷺池平九郎) from the series Eight Hundred Heroes of the Japanese Shuihuzhuan (Honchō Suikoden gōyū happyakunin no hitori - 本朝水滸伝剛勇八百人一個)
ca 1842 – 1846
9.25 in x 13.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Ibaya Sensaburō
(Marks 127 - seal 21-095
Nanushi censor's seal: Watari
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - published by Kagaya Kichiemon
British Museum - published by Kagaya Kichiemon
Los Angeles County Museum - Yoshitoshi's 1865 version
Pushkin Museum of Art - 1892 Nobukazu triptych
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - published by Kagaya Kichiemon In Iwakiri and Newland's book on Kuniyoshi from 2013 it says:
"The figure of Saginoike Heikurō appears in book I of the 1821 yomihon, Kusunoki Masatsura senkō zue (Illustrations of Kusunoki Matatsura's victories), with text by Yamada Isai and pictures by Nishimura Chūwa. Isai's novel represents Heikurō with a sword, slaying a giant snake, but Kuniyoshi distances himself from this original rendition, creating a composition of the hero wrenching open the jaw of a giant serpent with his bare hands."
Later they note that "Saginoike Heikurō became an established subject of warrior prints. He is seen, for instance, in omocha-e (toy prints) of warrior subjects by Utagawa Yoshitora and in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's 1865 series of historical images, One hundred tales of Japan and China (Wakan hyaku monogatari)"
The text in the upper right cartouche reads:
Hailing from Hongū village in Kishū, he [Saginoike Heikurō] once decapitated the head of a giant serpent in Sayamike, Tondabayashi in Kishū province, and later served Kusunoki Masatsura with distinction. Thereafter, he was adopted by Masatsura's royal retainer, Saginoike Kurōemon.****
"Sagiike Heikurō was a farmer of the Kawachi region [present-day Osaka prefecture]. One day, while he was fishing by a mountain stream, he saw the reflection of a large snake in the water just as it was reaching down to swallow his head. By nature a courageous man, Heikurō clenched his fists, turned round, struck the snake and stunned it. Then he seized the snake's jaws with his hands, split the snake in two, and threw it aside."
Quoted from: Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales - One Hundred Tales of Japan and China by John Stevenson, p. 46. [See the link above to the Yoshitoshi print being referenced.]
The British Museum says that this struggle took place at a lake of Sayama.
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There are at least two editions of this print. One of them was published by Kagaya Kichiemon. This one is by Ibaya Sensaburō is said to be the slightly later edition.
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As with the previous entry in the Lyon Collection (#819), the anonymous carver, gave our hero eyelashes which are rarely seen in ukiyo-e print.
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There is another copy of this diptych at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario.
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Kuniyoshi: Japanese master of imagined worlds by Iwakiri Yuriko with Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 2013, p. 39, pl. 15.
2) 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. 32. This exact print is the one illustrated in this volume.
3) in color in Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales by John Stevenson, Hotei Publishing, 2005, page 18. One difference between the print in this book and the one in the Lyon Collection is the slightly different location of the irises in both examples, making it seem that Saginoike Heikurō is looking more to our lower left in the latter.
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Ibaya Senzaburō (伊場屋仙三郎) (publisher)