Warrior Sasaki Taktsuna

Warrior Sasaki Taktsuna (Takitsuna) depicts one of the most celebrated episodes in Japanese military history: the crossing of the Uji River during the battle that preceded the Genpei War in 1184, when Sasaki Takitsuna and Kajiwara Kagesue raced their horses across the flooded river to be the first to engage the enemy. Sadanobu III's warrior print places this dramatic moment in the tradition of musha-e (warrior pictures) that has depicted this scene across centuries, the armored warrior on horseback a compositional challenge that tests the printmaker's ability to render both human and animal energy.