Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)

In this extraordinary and rare design, Kuniyoshi has ingeniously combined three episodes from the same story onto one triptych, whereby Minamoto no Tametomo (1139-70) is shipwrecked on a voyage from Kyushu to Kyoto. On the left sheet, about to commit suicide, a group of tengu (mythical creatures in the form of half bird, half man) come to rescue him. The centre sheet shows Kiheiji, Tametomo's retainer, with Tametomo's son in his arms, on the back of a giant 'crocodile-shark'. At first the creature tried to kill them, but was pacified and rescued them from drowning. On the right sheet, Tametomo's wife, Princess Shiranui, in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the storm has thrown herself into the waves. See T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R. Miller Collection, (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 29, p. 84-5.

For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston see www.mfa.org accession number 11.26999-7001 and for another in the British Museum, see www.britishmuseum.org museum number 1906,1220,0.1339.

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