Page 32 - Sotheby's London Fine Japanese Art Nov. 2019

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

23

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797–1861)
MITSUKUNI DEFYING THE
SKELETON SPECTRE CONJURED UP
BY PRINCESS TAKIYASHA (SOUMA NO
FURUDAIRI YOKAI GA SHADOKURO
TO TATAKAU OYA NOTAROU
MITSUKUNI)
EDO PERIOD, 19 TH CENTURY
Woodblock print: ink and colour on paper,
each sheet signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga and
with artist’s seal Yoshikiri [right sheet only],
publisher’s mark Hachi, censor’s seal Watari
(Watanabe Jiemon), 1845-46
Vertical tate-e ôban triptych:
Left sheet: 38 x 25.8 cm., 15 x 10⅛ in.
Centre sheet: 38 x 25.7 cm., 15 x 9⅞ in.
Right sheet: 38 x 25.5 cm., 15 x 10⅛ in.
(3)
This fearsome apparition has been conjured by
the Princess Takiyasha, the surviving daughter
of Taira no Masakado (?–940), who spies onto
the scene from the left as she reads from a
scroll of spells. She calls up a monstrous skel-
eton to frighten the warrior hero Ôya Tarô Mit-
sukuni, who was sent by his lord Minamoto no
Yorinobu (968–1048) to destroy her witchcraft.
The giant skeleton looms out of the blackness
to menace Mitsukuni below by pulling back
tattered reed blinds with its fingers.This tale is
dealt with the book (yomihon) Tales of Faithful
Uto Yasukata (Uto Yasukata chugi den) (1806)
by Santō Kyōden (1761–1816). While the scene
in Kyoden’s novel features several hundred
skeletons, which are divided into two armies
and fight a battle, Kuniyoshi elegantly replaces
these with a monumental depiction of a single
giant skeleton sensationally spreading the three
sheets of a triptych.The print is untrimmed and
benefits from bright, overall unfaded colours.
It seems to be one of the earliest states, which
is evidenced by a black pigment of granular
character that appears on the skeleton’s chin
and ribs in the centre of the chest and the grey
colour of the eye sockets. In later printings, the
band of wiped black disappears from the top of
the composition and the eye sockets are of a
deeper blue tone.
The same print is in numerous museum col-
lections including the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, accession no. 11.30468-70, The British
Museum, museum no. 1908,0418,0.2.1-3,
and the Honolulu Museum of Art, object no.
11641.06.

‡ £ 25,000-30,000
€ 28,100-33,700 US$ 31,100-37,300

30 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstances).
Refer to the Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.