Kuniyoshi Utagawa

"Specters by Tsuchigumo, Minamoto no Yorimitsu Koshokan" (The Spider by Minamoto no Yorimitsu Koshokan)

(Minamoto Mitsuko Yorimitsu Koukan Tsuchigumo Saku Yokai no Zu)

1843, large-format nishiki-e (brocade), 3 prints in sequence


Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who is said to have vanquished the drinking spiders on Mount Oe, is being bewildered by the monsters of the ground spiders.

Although there are other paintings of the extermination of demons on Mt. The pattern of Yorimitsu's wobbly kimono is a sheath-shaped pattern, which means that the 12th shogun, Tokugawa Iekei, is the Yorimitsu.

The common people of Edo, who had grown weary of Mizuno's prohibition policy, began to buy these ukiyo-e prints in droves.

The publisher was Ibasen. Ibasen was not to be blamed for the enthusiasm of the people, as he quickly retrieved the prints and shaved off the woodblocks. Well, well, well...

Both Ibasen, the publisher, and the Utagawa school, to which Kuniyoshi belonged, had been serving the Edo shogunate, so to speak. They were not deprived of their rights and continued to publish caricatures with a rebellious spirit and a willingness to criticize the shogunate, both before and after the Edo shogunate.