Guan Yu, Liu Bei, and Zhang Fei

This 1825 shikishiban-format surimono by Utagawa Kunisada depicts Guan Yu, Liu Bei, and Zhang Fei, the three legendary heroes of the Chinese Three Kingdoms cycle whose oath of brotherhood in the Peach Garden became one of the most famous episodes in East Asian historical romance. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi), known in Japanese as Sangokushi, was widely read in Edo Japan and provided constant subject matter for ukiyo-e from the late eighteenth century onward. Liu Bei is the virtuous warlord and future founder of Shu Han; Guan Yu, his sworn brother, is the loyal red-faced warrior god of war later deified across East Asia; Zhang Fei is the impetuous and indomitable third brother. The three together are an icon of righteous brotherhood and martial loyalty. Kunisada's 1825 surimono treatment, commissioned privately and printed in a luxurious limited edition, brings the heroes into the cultivated literary atmosphere of Edo poetry clubs. The shikishiban format constrains the composition to near-square proportions, and the design would deploy careful figure differentiation, military equipment, and the costume conventions for Chinese subjects that Kunisada had learned from Toyokuni I's studio and from earlier Edo Chinese-subject prints. The Art Institute of Chicago's example preserves Kunisada's Bunsei-period engagement with Sangokushi material, a parallel strand to his actor prints and an important reminder of the global literary culture circulating in late-Edo Japan.