Utagawa Kuniyoshi

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
- KAPPA - 河童 / 合羽　/ かっぱ /　カッパ - Prints -
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


. Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 - Introduction .


本朝剣道略傳 -  河童 Honcho Kendo Ryakuden
Abridged Stories of Our Country's Swordsmanship





毛谷村六助　 Keyamura no Rokusuke stripped to his waist and drying his back is addressed by a young kappa.
A bundle of rushes and a carrying-pole are behind them.
source : kuniyoshiproject.com


- quote -
Keyamura Rokusuke (毛谷村 六助) is one of the leading characters in the ningyō jōruri/kabuki play Hiko-san Gongen chikai no sukedachi (彦山権現誓劔) and some other plays. The farmer turned samurai is known for his filial piety and incredible strength, and is viewed as a mirror of samurai.
..... Keyamura is located in Tsukinoki, Yamakuni-machi, Nakatsu, Ōita Prefecture.
..... Kida Magobee (木田孫兵衛) ..... Until the end of the Edo period, the Kida family served to the Hosokawa clan, who replaced the Katō clan as the ruler of Kumamoto.
- MORE in the wikipedia -



Keyamura by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳

..............................................................................................................................................



source :　www.nichibun.ac.jp/YoukaiGazou

河童とおぼしき化物。頭部の後ろにあるのは甲羅か




"A kappa (river sprite) trying to pull man into the water"

..............................................................................................................................................




Takagi Toranosuke 多嘉木虎之助
capturing a kappa in the Tamura River in the Sagami Province


- quote -
Dates: 1834 - 1835,　created
Dimensions: 9.5 in,14.0 in,　Overall dimensions
Medium: Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription: Signed: (Ichiyūsai) Kuniyoshi ga - (一勇斎) 国芳画
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Uhei
(Marks 232 - seal closest to 22-050) Censor's seal: kiwame

Physical description:
Sarah E. Thompson in her Utagawa Kuniyoshi: The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō, #31 describes another print, different from the one in the Lyon Collection, relating to Toranosuke's superhuman abilities.
"Takagi Toranosuke appears in at least one other print by Kuniyoshi and one by Kuniyoshi's pupil Yoshitoshi, both in the MFA collection. Both have short texts describing him as a samurai originally from Hyūga Province who wandered through Japan and fought various monsters. It seems likely that he is a fictional character, possibly inspired by the historical figures Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi, who founded the Hontai Hōshin Ryū school of martial arts in the seventeenth century, and his successor as head of the school, Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada. Both Oriemon and Umanosuke appear in prints as well, with fantastic adventures added to their real-life biographies.

Toranosuke's reputation as a fighter of monsters suggests that perhaps he is about to fight the whale, as in Kuniyoshi's famous triptych of Miyamoto Musashi fighting a whale. Kuniyoshi's other print of Toranosuke shows him in an underwater struggle with a creature called a 'river tiger' (kawatora); and the text of Yoshitoshi's print, which shows the hero fighting a female demon, mentions a battle with an 'evil fish' (akugyō).
Although no literary source has been found, there may be a related story in which the supernatural water monster is replaced by a whale - less unusual, but far more impressive."


"Takagi Toranosuke, a native of Hyūga and an expert in the martial arts,
is seen struggling with a kappa or kawatarō (also known as a suiko (waterbaby)).
A kappa is a composite amphibious creature said to be a native of Kyushu. It has the shell of a tortoise, scaly legs, webbed feet and most mystifying of all, an ape-like head with a hollow depression in its crown that contains a strange fluid that provides the kappa with its strength. It tends to be harmless, but if one remembers to bow to the kappa it is forced to return the bow, thus losing its potent fluid and becoming powerless.
Even as late as the 19th century, it was still widely believed that kappa actually existed. Stuffed kappa were shown in freak shows and one such exhibit was shown at the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde) in Leiden, the Netherlands, in the 1980s. The animal had been cleverly constructed and must have been quite convincing at the time."
Quoted from:
Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap,
p. 47, with an accompanying color reproduction.

- source : woodblockprints.org
- Thanks to Tokugawa Hayato san -

..............................................................................................................................................


The Kuniyoshi Project
- source : www.kuniyoshiproject.com



MORE　yokai monsters by Kuniyoshi :
- source : google.co.jp

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::




林檎と河童 featuring 歌川国芳 apple and Kappa - Kuniyoshi
iPhone5ケース case for an iPhone

inGod jewels　(インゴッド ジュエルズ)
- source : www.amazon.co.jp


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #kappautagawa #kappakuniyoshi -
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::