Parody of the Armor-pulling Scene (Kusazuribiki), from the series "Fashionable Parodies of Bravery in Love (Furyu mitate iro-buyu)"

From Koryusai's series Furyu mitate iro-buyu (Fashionable Parodies of Bravery in Love), in the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to about 1770 to 1772, this chuban print parodies the famous Kusazuribiki (armor-pulling) scene from the medieval saga of the Soga brothers, in which Soga no Goro is restrained from rushing into battle by another warrior pulling at the kusazuri panels of his armor. The Kusazuribiki was one of the most pictorial scenes in the kabuki and Soga storytelling traditions, and Edo artists had been reworking it for generations. Koryusai's parody recasts the warrior pair as a courtesan and a young dandy in a romantic tug-of-war, the armor-pulling action transformed into a lover's grasping at a robe. The print exemplifies the iro-buyu (bravery in love) parody convention, in which the iconography of martial heroism was systematically remapped onto the romantic encounters of the pleasure quarters.