Yang Zhi, known in Japanese as Seimenju Yoshi or the Blue-Faced Beast, is one of the most striking figures in Utagawa Kuniyoshi's landmark series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Water Margin. Published beginning around 1827 by Kagaya Kichibei, the series is the cornerstone of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) warrior prints and the project that transformed Kuniyoshi from a struggling pupil of Toyokuni I into the leading [musha-e](/glossary/musha-e) designer of his generation. Yang Zhi appears as a heroic outcast of the Song dynasty, a former imperial officer reduced to selling his ancestral sword on a market street, his face permanently marked by a livid blue birthmark that gives him his epithet. Kuniyoshi presents him as a coiled, muscular figure whose stance and gaze register both his martial pedigree and the humiliation of his fall. The taut sinews of arms and shoulders, the layered patterning of his garments, and the careful registration of his weapons reveal Kuniyoshi's interest in anatomy, tattoo design, and textile detail. The Art Institute of Chicago, which holds this impression, situates the print within the Suikoden boom that swept Edo in the late 1820s, when Bakin's translation of the Chinese novel was being serialized and woodblock publishers raced to capitalize on public enthusiasm. Kuniyoshi's individual portraits of the heroes essentially invented the standalone single-figure warrior print, a format that dominated Edo ukiyo-e warrior prints for the rest of the nineteenth century and that influenced everything from Meiji-era musha-e to modern manga heroes. As both an entry point to the series and a study in Kuniyoshi's mature style, the sheet remains one of the touchstone images of the Suikoden tradition.
c. 1828/30
Color woodblock print; surimono
c. 1828/30
Color woodblock print; surimono
c. 1827/30
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1827/30
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Yang Zhi (Seimenju Yoshi), from the series "One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Water Margin (Tsuzoku Suikoden goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori)" was created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) in c. 1827/30.
Yang Zhi (Seimenju Yoshi), from the series "One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Water Margin (Tsuzoku Suikoden goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori)" depicts heroes & warriors, warriors, and suikoden (water margin).