Author: Klompmakers, Inge
Title: Of Brigands and Bravery - Kuniyoshi's heroes of the Suikoden
Description: Leiden. Hotei. 1998. First edition. Octavo. Hardcover. Fine. Near Fine. 200 Pages, 74 colour plates, 50 colour and black and white illustrations. This is the first monograph in English on the stunning series of 74 prints illustrating figures from the Suikoden by Utakawa Kuniyoshi. The Suikoden (commonly known in English as The Water Margin) is the Japanese adaptation of the 14th-century Chinese vernacular novel, the Shui Hu Zhuan, which recounts the exploits of a group of rebels on Mount Liang under the lead of the brave and righteous Song Jiang. The Suikoden was enormously popular in Japan during the 19th century and it was Kuniyoshi''s initial designs for the single-sheet print series The One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Suikoden (Tsuzoku Suikoden goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori) - in which the full-length portraits of the heroes are charged with a new sense of dynamism - that spurred a Suikoden craze in Edo. This book reproduces the 74 prints of the series in full colour; each is accompanied by an explanatory text. The publication also offers supplentary information on topics relating specifically to the series such as tattooing.

Keywords: kuniyoshi japan japanese prints