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Unchô ('Permanent-as-Cloud'); famed for the beauty and length of his beard,
he is called Bisen-kô ('Man of the Magnificent Beard'). At the beginning of
the Yellow Turban uprising against the Han dynasty, together with Liu Pei and
Chang Fei, swore brotherhood with the peach garden pledge and from then on
their deeds were hard to number. Kuniyoshi depicts Kan U (Chinese: 'Kuan Yü') seated under a blosoming tree, stroking his beard. The complete series consists of 100 designs, 51 are by Kuniyoshi, 35 by Hiroshige, andf 14 by Kunisada. The set is numbered throughout in the left-hand margin. - The main subjects are mostly from history and legend, but as the series proceeds the dramatic (kabuki) element becomes increasingly prominent. The upper part of each print is divided off and contains, on the right, the title in large formal script; on the left, the name and poem of the poet concerned. For a detailed description of what is depicted in the print, including the translatiuon of the poem, see: - Herwig / Mostow, The Hundred Poets Compaired; Hotei Publishing; Leiden & Boston, 2007; no. 50, pp. 134-135. |