Surprise Attack upon Hiyodorinoe

A second treatment of the Hiyodorigoe descent, the 1184 cavalry attack down the cliffs above Ichi-no-Tani that broke the Heike line. Takeda revisits the subject within the Saru series, suggesting a [diptych](/glossary/diptych) or paired-sheet structure in which the same episode is approached from a different vantage or moment within the action. The repeated subject is consistent with the long Edo-period tradition of issuing variant prints of celebrated battle scenes — a practice familiar from Kuniyoshi's serialized [musha-e](/glossary/musha-e) sets. Here the monkey-warriors and their mounts again pour down the slope, but the cutting and color separations differ: a tighter or wider crop, an alternative [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) treatment on the cliff, or a redistribution of the figural mass. The mokuhanga production, in the Kyoto workshop of Tadashi Toda, maintains the keyblock-and-color-blocks discipline of the series. As a paired image, it underlines Takeda's interest in serial composition and in the way classical battle prints reward repeated looking at a single dramatic event.