Lives of Wise and Heroic Women
About This Series
Utagawa Kuniyoshi's Lives of Wise and Heroic Women belongs to the genre of kenpu and retsujo prints, the pictures of virtuous and exemplary women that drew on Sino-Japanese moral literature and on the long traditions of female heroism preserved in Japanese historical writing, military epic, and Buddhist hagiography. The series is generally placed in the 1840s, the period when the Tenpo reforms had pushed Edo publishers toward subject matter that could be defended as morally improving, and titles built around the lives of exemplary historical women gained particular currency. Each oban tate-e sheet treats a specific historical or legendary woman, ranging from Chinese paragons of the Lienu zhuan tradition to Japanese figures drawn from the medieval epic Heike monogatari, the warrior-women narratives of the Hogen and Heiji wars, the Buddhist biographies of nuns and devout consorts, and the political histories of empresses and regents. As musha-e applied to a female canon, the prints adopt the dramatic figural conventions Kuniyoshi had perfected in his great warrior series while substituting the kimono, hair ornaments, and small attributes that identify each subject for the armor and weapons of his male heroes. The publisher and exact date should be verified against the standard reference catalogues, but the series fits comfortably within the network of Edo houses that issued Kuniyoshi historical and biographical cycles. Modern scholarship reads the genre of exemplary women prints as central to the moral economy of late Tokugawa print culture, in which Confucian virtue, Buddhist devotion, and Japanese historical pride were mediated through a developing notion of female heroism. The Kuniyoshi sheets continue to appear in collections of his work and supply a useful counterpoint to the better-known male warrior series, demonstrating how the same designer's hand could honor a parallel female canon with comparable visual force.
Frequently Asked Questions
Utagawa Kuniyoshi's Lives of Wise and Heroic Women belongs to the genre of kenpu and retsujo prints, the pictures of virtuous and exemplary women that drew on Sino-Japanese moral literature and on the long traditions of female heroism preserved in Japanese historical writing, military epic, and Buddhist hagiography. The series is generally placed in the 1840s, the period when the Tenpo reforms had pushed Edo publishers toward subject matter that could be defended as morally improving, and titles built around the lives of exemplary historical women gained particular currency. Each oban tate-e sheet treats a specific historical or legendary woman, ranging from Chinese paragons of the Lienu zhuan tradition to Japanese figures drawn from the medieval epic Heike monogatari, the warrior-women narratives of the Hogen and Heiji wars, the Buddhist biographies of nuns and devout consorts, and the political histories of empresses and regents. As musha-e applied to a female canon, the prints adopt the dramatic figural conventions Kuniyoshi had perfected in his great warrior series while substituting the kimono, hair ornaments, and small attributes that identify each subject for the armor and weapons of his male heroes. The publisher and exact date should be verified against the standard reference catalogues, but the series fits comfortably within the network of Edo houses that issued Kuniyoshi historical and biographical cycles. Modern scholarship reads the genre of exemplary women prints as central to the moral economy of late Tokugawa print culture, in which Confucian virtue, Buddhist devotion, and Japanese historical pride were mediated through a developing notion of female heroism. The Kuniyoshi sheets continue to appear in collections of his work and supply a useful counterpoint to the better-known male warrior series, demonstrating how the same designer's hand could honor a parallel female canon with comparable visual force.
The Lives of Wise and Heroic Women series contains 1 prints, created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
The Lives of Wise and Heroic Women series was created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).
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