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Utagawa YOSHIIKU (1833 - 1904)

From the series:  Mirror of Our Country's Swordmanship "Musashi Taking a Sword Lesson"

Preparatory brush drawing (shita-e) in sumi (black ink) on paper. Signed:                 Ikkeisai Yoshiiku ga (2x) and Yoishiiku (1x) Date:                     1870s Paper size:            ôban triptych, c. 36 x 75 cms / c. 14 1/8" x 29 1/2"                               (the three panels are joined) Condition: The usual minor flaws of such preliminary drawings (as minor paper toning and thinnings), but in very good overall condition. - The three sheets of the triptych are joined and mounted on thin backing paper. ref. no.: # S-1401 Price:  € 4,900.00

Musashi taking a sword lesson from Tsukuhara Bokusen in the teacher's house. We see him aiming his sword towards a piece of cloth Bokusen holds in his stretched out hand. The open room discloses the engawa and a distant mountain landscape. At left, a peasant woman who is standing next to an ox with her wide straw hat raised, is looking into the room, watching the exercise. The preparatory drawing, though not yet finished, already contains the series title, a descriptive cartouche and the artist's signature on each panel of the triptych. YOSHIIKU, born in Edo (Tokyo), was the son of the proprietor of a teahouse in the Yoshiwara district. He apprenticed to the owner of a pawnshop, but soon left to become a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Together with Yoshitoshi, Yoshiiku who was six years older than Yoshitoshi, rivaled for the leading position within Kuniyoshi’s school. It seems that both continued to be great rivals when they became independent. Yoshiiku was a successful printmaker and illustrator of numerous books. After the Meiji Restoration he became a popular and well-known newspaper illustrator and cartoonist. His subjects included actors and bijin, and particularly ghostly scenes.

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