Page 473 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 -1861)
The Warrior Miyamoto Musashi Subduing
a Whale

c. 1847 -1850
Triptych of color woodblock prints
36.8x73.7(1472x29)
Private Collection, New York

• By stretching the image of an
enormous whale across three wood-
block prints, Utagawa Kuniyoshi
472
suggests the bulking scale and vol-
ume of the sea beast. Dwarfed by
the whale and oceanic background,
the famous swordsman Miyamoto
Musashi (1584-1645) subdues his
prey against all odds. The broad
expanse of the white and spotted-
black body of the whale stands out
against the dynamic spectrum of
blues used to suggest the roiling
waves. The application of red for the
artist's gourd-shaped signature car-
touches, Musashi's sword sheaf and
collar, and the (already bleeding)
mouth of the whale contributes to the
coloristic drama. Intriguingly, the
eye of the whale conveys an aspect
of calmness in the middle of the
samurai's furious attack.
Kuniyoshi has exploited the triptych
format to the fullest, turning it into
a wide screen. Ukiyoe print triptychs
are usually designed so that each
sheet is a self-contained image. Here
the right print, showing only a whale's
tail, could not very well stand alone.

The precise source of the story is
unclear, but the text in the cartouche
in the sky area of the left print tells us
that Miyamoto Musashi at one time,
"in the seas near Hizen province [near
Nagasaki] speared a large bowhead
(semi) whale."
Musashi, a master swordsman, martial
arts expert, and author of the samurai
guidebook Book of Five Rings, was also
a talented ink painter in a Zen-inspired
style (see cats. 84, 85). During the Edo
period legends of Musashi's super-
human exploits were widely circulated
by itinerant storytellers and appeared
in popular literature of the day. JTC