Satomi ke Hakkenshi no hitori (One of the Eight Heroes of the Satomi Clan: Inumura Daikaku Surprised by a Female in His Hermitage)

This Osaka kamigata-e print by Ryūsai Shigeharu, held by the British Museum (museum number 1939,0513,0.2), depicts a scene from the kabuki adaptation of Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Satomi ke Hakkenshi no hitori — One of the Eight Heroes of the Satomi Clan), specifically the figure Inumura Daikaku surprised by a female figure in his mountain hermitage. Bakin's novel cast eight virtuous warriors as reincarnated dog-knights, and the Inumura Daikaku scene draws on the moment of supernatural encounter that reveals the hero's mystical destiny. Shigeharu's composition belongs to a broader 1830s vogue for Hakkenden imagery in kabuki and ukiyo-e, paralleling the Cleveland Museum's diptych (1975.69) by Shigeharu of the Inuzuka Shino and Inukai Kenpachi battle. The print is preserved as a color woodblock print at the British Museum, accessioned in 1939 as part of the museum's broader Osaka kamigata-e holdings that complement its larger Edo ukiyo-e collection. The British Museum's holdings of Shigeharu's work provide a useful complement to the larger MFA Boston collection by giving European-side documentation of the same theatrical and literary subjects that drove kamigata-e production through the Tenpō period.