YOSHIIKU, Utagawa ( 1833-1904) - Musashi taking a sword lesson

Description

Artist:YOSHIIKU, Utagawa ( 1833-1904)

Title:Musashi taking a sword lesson

Series: Mirror Of Our Country's Swordmanship

Date:c.1870s

Medium:Black ink (sumi) on paper.

Size/Format:oban triptych; c. 14 1/8" x 29 1/2"

Description:Utagawa YOSHIIKU, a pupil of Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), and (artistic) rival to YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892), was a successful printmaker and illustrator of numerous books and newspaper magazines. This preliminary drawing (?shita-e') for a triptych of the published series, "Mirror of our country's swordmanship", depicts Musashi taking a sword lesson from Tsukahara Bokusen in the teacher's house. We see him aiming his sword towards a piece of cloth Bokusen holds in his stretched out hand. The open room discloses the engawa (a wooden floored hallway of a Japanese house) and a distant mountain landscape. At left, a peasant woman who is standing next to an ox with her wide straw hat raised, is watching the exercise. Though not yet fully worked out, the drawing already contains the series title, a descriptive cartouche and the artist's signature, a.o.

Reserve: $4,900.00

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Condition

Mounted on thin backing paper. Toning (not unusual for the type of paper used in the Meiji period and thereafter for preliminary drawings; good to very good general condition.

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YOSHIIKU, Utagawa ( 1833-1904) - Musashi taking a sword lesson

Lot 0052

Estimate $6,000-$7,000Feb 11, 2026, 8:00 PM EST

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