Kunichika - Tokiwa Gozen- 36 Good and Evil Beauties

Toyohara Kunichika

Tokiwa Gozen - Portrait of Tokiwa gozen, the mistress of Minamoto no Yoshitomo and the mother of the great samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune. After Yoshitomo was killed by Taira no Kiyomori, Lady Tokiwa escaped through the snow with her three sons. An attractive design, detailed with embossing on the white kimono collars.

Amy Reigle Newland devoted a whole paragraph on page 18 to the significance of this series, i.e., Zen-aku sanjūroku bijin, at the beginning of her book on Kunichika: "Thirty-six good and evil beauties (Zen-aku sanjūroku bijin)... of 1876 is arguably one of Kunichika's most accomplished forays into bijinga. The quality of printing is superb. His treatment of the subject is fluid, the women portrayed energetic, wild, their poses at times reminiscent of those encountered in the work of earlier artists like Kuniyoshi and Kunisada, and in his own actor prints... Each sheet in Thirty-six good and evil beauties illustrates a famous woman from distant or more recent history with an explanatory cartouche above by a contemporary writer."

Condition: Margins as shown, good condition, not backed, some grey ink wash on the hair.

Date: 1876

Genre: Ukiyo-e