Posted by Gary G. on May 16, 1997 at 00:14:13:
In Reply to: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki hero stories posted by yasuko on May 14, 1997 at 23:01:40:
: Taiheiki, a well known historical war tale volumes, were from
: 14th century. At least some hero depicted by Kuniyoshi was from
: 16th century, and should not have anything to do with Taiheiki.
: Are these prints mostly fictitious stories for entertainment, name
: Taiheiki was used because maybe it sounded good?
Hi Yasuko,
B.W. Robinson in his book "Kuniyoshi, The Warrior-Prints",
explains....
The Taiheiki ("Chronicle of the Great Peace") is an ironically
named history of the wars of the loyalist Nitta and
Kusunoki families against the Ashikaga war-lords during the
second quarter of the 14th century; it was written little more
than a generation after the events it describes. In this series,
however, all the characters portrayed figured in the civil
wars of the sixteenth century, thus providing a striking
instance of the Japanese convention of moving back
incidents and personalities of comparatively recent date
and into a more remote period. To complicate matters still
further the names of the characters have been changed in
almost every case.