Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Tales in the Round: Manjū Netsuke and Japanese Woodblock Prints

(from 30th Apr until 22nd Sep 2013)

Discover dramatic episodes from Japanese culture in these exquisitely carved objects and prints.

Detail of a manju netsuke depicting Minamoto Yoshitsune practising martial arts with a tengu demon,
Tadanobu defending himself with a gō boardfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Tadanobu defending himself with a gō board

  • Description

    Backed into a corner of the house of his ex-lover, the warrior Minamoto no Tadanobu slashes out with his sword and a gō board at Minamoto no Yoritomo’s men, who have come to kill him having been tipped off by the treacherous Koshiba Oguruma, who is seen hiding behind the sliding shoji screen. Gō pieces scatter everywhere in the heat of Tadanobu’s last moments, before he commits suicide (seppuku). This scene is also depicted on the netsuke EA2001.69.

  • Details

    show all
    Series
    Take-offs Based on the Ogura Version of the ‘One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets'
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of creation)
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    published 1843 - 1846
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 - 1861) (designer)
    Yokogawa Takejirō (active c. 1852) (block cutter)
    Sakanoue no Korenori (died c. AD 930) (author)
    Associated people
    Ibaya Senzaburō (active c. 1820s - c. 1870s) (publisher)
    Koshiba Oguruma (active 12th century) (subject)
    Satō Tadanobu (1160 - 1187) (subject)
    Murata Heiemon (active 1843 - 1853) (censor)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.4 cm (height x width)
    sheet 35.7 x 23.6 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by George Grigs, Miss Elizabeth Grigs, and Miss Susan Messer, in memory of Derick Grigs, 1971.
    Accession no.
    EA1971.114

Glossary (3)

gō, netsuke, nishiki-e

  • gō

    Art name

  • netsuke

    The netsuke is a form of toggle that was used to secure personal items suspended on cords from the kimono sash. These items included purses, medicine cases or tobacco paraphernalia.

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Notice

Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum