Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) — Menju Sosuke Ieteru (Heroes of the Taiheiki)

Powerful warrior portrait from Kuniyoshi’s landmark Heroes of the Taiheiki series. The design portrays the youthful retainer Menjō Katsuteru (Menju Katsusuke)—here given the pseudonym “Menju Sosuke Ieteru” to comply with Edo-period censorship—charging into enemy ranks to retrieve his lord’s captured standard. Spears jab from the margins, arrows and swords litter the ground, and Kuniyoshi’s dynamic line and wind-tossed hair heighten the drama.

The series, published c. 1847–1850, adapts episodes from the epic Taiheiki (chronicling the Genkō War and the Nanboku-chō era) but also celebrates late-16th-century heroes. Because depictions of figures after 1573 were restricted by an 1804 edict, Kuniyoshi assigned recognizable pseudonyms and provided biographies in the cartouches above. Menjō Katsuteru (d. 1583) later became famed as one of the “Three Famous Swordsmen of Shizugatake,” remembered for extraordinary valor.

Details

• Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳, 1797–1861)

• Title/Subject: Menju Sosuke Ieteru 毛受想助家照
  (Historical figure: Menjō Katsuteru / Menju Katsusuke 毛受家照, d. 1583)

• Series: Heroes of the Taiheiki (Taiheiki eiyū den, 太平記英勇傳)

• Medium: Woodblock print

• Date: c. 1848 (series published c. 1847–1850)

• Size (H × W): 14.6 × 10.25 in (sheet)

• Image Size (H × W): 13 5/8 × 9 in

• Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi (Eikyudō)

• Seals: Mera and Murata (censor seals)

• Signature: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga

• Provenance: Private Washington State Collector

• Condition: Good color, very good impression; light soiling and edge wear; small wormage at paper edge; some creasing; top-right corner torn; paper lightly toned.

Artist note: Born in Edo to a silk dyer, Kuniyoshi trained under Toyokuni I and rose to fame with 108 Heroes of the Suikoden (1827). A master storyteller across genres, he excelled most in musha-e (warrior prints) and died in 1861.

Item Label

Menju Sosuke Ieteru (Heroes of the Taiheiki)
毛受想助家照 (太平記英勇傳)

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳)
Japan, c. 1848
Woodblock print
Dimensions: Framed 18 × 13.5 in 
No. 173

Museum Card

Menju Sosuke Ieteru (Heroes of the Taiheiki)
毛受想助家照 (太平記英勇傳)

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳), Japan, c. 1848
Woodblock print; publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi (Eikyudō)
Dimensions: Framed 18 × 13.5 in 

Kuniyoshi’s dynamic warrior portrait shows the youthful retainer Menjō Katsuteru (Menju Katsusuke) charging into enemy ranks to retrieve his lord’s captured standard, a scene bristling with spears, fallen arrows, and flying hair. Issued in the series Heroes of the Taiheiki (c. 1847–1850), the design uses the pseudonym “Menju Sosuke Ieteru” to sidestep Edo-period restrictions on depicting post-1573 figures; the cartouche text identified such heroes for contemporary viewers. Signature: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga; censor seals: Mera and Murata. Provenance: Private Washington State Collector.
No. 173