Name: Miyamoto No Musashi Attacking the Giant Whale
Brand: UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861)
Price: 15000.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)
Miyamoto no Musashi attacking the Giant Whale
Miyamoto no Musashi attacking the Giant Whale

Woodblock triptych, signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga, sealed Kiri, published by Kawaguchiya Shozo, circa 1847-50
Vertical oban triptych (35.2 x 73.6cm.)

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie Manson & Woods Ltd

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

In this iconic and rare print, Miyamoto Musashi (1583-1647), famed as a sword master and inventor of the two-sword style of fencing (nito-ryu), is shown plunging his sword into a giant whale off the coast of Higo (present-day Kumamoto prefecture). The clever composition shows the triptych format at its best; exaggerating the whale's form so that it almost completely fills the entire picture frame, producing an extremely powerful image.

For another impression in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museums, Edinburgh, see Robert Schaap, Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861, (The Netherlands, 1998), p.88, no.69.