235 - Part I from the Private Collection of Sir V.S. Naipaul (1932 – 2018) Lots 226-236

Part I from the Private Collection of Sir V.S. Naipaul (1932 – 2018) Lots 226-236 Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) Edo period, circa 1851 Japanese woodblock print, 'The last stand of the Kusunoki Heroes at Shijo-Nawate' (Nanke yushi Shijo-Nawate nite uchijini), signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga, artist's seal yoshikri, published by Fujiokaya Keijiro, verticaloban triptych, 76.9cm x 37.7cm (each sheet approx. 36.4cm x 25.2cm), framed and glazed. Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 18 September 1998, Lot 389. Private Collection of Sir V.S. Naipaul (1932 – 2018) In his triptych Brave Warriors of the Kusunoki Clan at Shijonawate (formally, At Shijō-nawate, the Heroes of the Kusunoki Clan Take on a Gigantic Enemy Force and in a Mighty Battle Display Their Incomparable Renown), first designed c. 1851 and later reworked by Kuniyoshi in a rare hexaptych format in 1857, the artist depicts the Battle of Shijonawate. This was fought in 1348 in Kawachi province, during the Nanboku-chō period, between the Southern Court army under Kusunoki Masatsura and the Northern Court forces of Ashikaga Takauji. Vastly outnumbered (traditionally some 3,000 men against 60,000), the Kusunoki were comprehensively defeated, choosing a warrior's death over surrender. The warriors (from right: Wada Shinbochi Kenshu, Wada Shinbei Masatomo and Kusunoki Masatsura) press forward through a dense hail of arrows, using grim makeshift shields: Kenshu holds up two severed enemy heads, Masatomo crouches beneath a shredded banner, and Masatsura shelters behind a fallen horse, holding up a dead soldier. Badly wounded and bleeding, they have blue faces, a sign that death is near. The design influenced later artists including Ogata Gekkō and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and impressions are held in the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From The Arthur R. Miller Collection (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 32, pp. 92-3.