Two Japanese woodblock prints by UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI, from the series of Women as Benkei. Publisher: Iba-ya Kyûbei 1844.
One depicting a young woman offering a dish of delicacies to a cherub-like infant clinging to her. Benkei reference: The episode Ataka no matsu (Pine trees at Ataka) episode. Ataka is the title of a noh play with the same theme as the kabuki play Kanjinchô.
The other depicting a married woman with blackened teeth is preparing tea with water from the Horikawa. She is holding a pair of irons to light a fire in the hibachi
Benkei reference: Horikawa is the name of Yoshitsune’s mansion in Kyoto where he and his followers, Benkei among them, stayed during their flight from Yoshitsune’s half-brother, Yoritomo, after the defeat of the Taira. Measurement prints 25x37 cm.
With black passepartout. Not framed. Holes, soft creases. Wear.
Literature
This series of prints is listed as number 137 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961).
More information
This series of ten prints portrays beautiful women each wearing a kimono with checkered pattern, a pattern associated with the hero Benkei. Each print has a kyoka poem that refers to an event in Benkei’s life or one of the many fictionalized accounts of his life. The title of this series is sometimes translated into English as “Women in Benkei-checkered kimono”.
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