Poem by Ōe no Masafusa: Mukandayū Atsumori and Princess Tamaori

Poem by Ōe no Masafusa: Mukandayū Atsumori and Princess Tamaori is a 1845 sheet by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the series Ogura nazora-e Hyaku-nin isshu, preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The series, designed jointly by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada, paired the canonical waka of the Hyakunin Isshu anthology with imaginative pictorial "imitations" drawn from history, legend, and the kabuki stage. Here a poem attributed to Ōe no Masafusa is paired with the famous and poignant story of the young Taira warrior Atsumori and his lover Princess Tamaori, which had long been a fixture of nō and kabuki repertoires. Kuniyoshi's design unites his characteristic strengths — careful historical costume, expressive figural drawing, and a strong sense of theatrical mood — with a literary frame that reminds viewers of the deep classical resonance of the subject. The figures' robes are rendered with crisp outline carving and richly varied colour blocks, the hallmark of high-quality mid-1840s Edo woodblock production. The cartouche above presents the verse and its author, reinforcing the print's role within the broader literary project that gave the series its name. The Victoria and Albert Museum's holdings of sheets from this collaboration allow scholars to study Kuniyoshi's contribution alongside those of Hiroshige and Kunisada, illustrating how Edo ukiyo-e could move easily between heroic narrative, romantic legend, and the elegant world of classical poetry within a single carefully composed image.