Posted by yasuko on May 19, 1997 at 22:00:33:
In Reply to: Re: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki hero stories posted by Gary G. on May 16, 1997 at 00:14:13:
: : 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.
Thank you for your information. I would like to read Robinson's
book. I don't quite understand "thus providing a striking instance of
the Jspanese convention of moving back..."
I am very glad that we agree the time frame of Taiheiki (covers 1318-67
or 68, completed about 1370-1371) and the Kuniyoshi's heroes (character
of 16th century, another war filled era before Tokugawa period). My Japanese
history reference is very limited here, but Toyokuni's Taiheiki characters
seem to me consistently actual 16th century war heroes.
Shibata Katsuiye (1522?-83)(the one in your current auction) is a principal captain
of the hegemon Oda Nobunaga... (from Japan, An Illustrated Encyclopedia, vol2
from Kodansha).
I wonder though, is it
1) The mass who enjoyed ukiyoe, and Kuniyoshi, did not know that Taiheiki is the
from much earlier times, and not for the Sengoku period when these warriers lived.
2) Maybe in Kuniyoshi's time, the work Taiheiki meant generic "war time story".
3) The term Taiheiki was used by a sheer coincidence. Kuniboshi happen to call
his work Taiheiki since after these warrierscame Tokugawa period of peace. Kuniyoshi
was not making reference to famous Taiheiki.
4) Something more complicated as Robinson seems to indicate, which I have not understood
yet.