Minamoto no Yoshitsune and His Nineteen Retainers on a Boat (Yoshitsune jūkyū-nin no jū-shi)

This 1859 [triptych](/glossary/triptych) by Utagawa Kunitsuna I, recorded in the Hara Shobō dealer catalogue (item 12966), depicts Minamoto no Yoshitsune and his nineteen retainers — the celebrated band of warriors who followed the young general from his early exile at Kurama through the great Genpei War campaigns that destroyed the Taira clan — gathered on a boat. The subject draws on the densely narrated Yoshitsune cycle of medieval war tales (specifically the Gikeiki and the Heike monogatari), which provided a rich source of [musha-e](/glossary/musha-e) (warrior print) subjects throughout the Edo period.