Description

Important woodblock print made by the artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) and depicting Iioka no Sukegoro (飯岡助五郎), who has become famous as leader of a gambling gang in the Shimosa Province (下総国) and who is here portrayed wearing a kimono (着物) decorated with an impressive skull pattern, while capturing the infamous ronin Ikuta Kakudayu (幾田角太夫) after having pinned down him inside an inn where the latter had stopped for a drink to the terror of the customers.

In the upper part of the work, taken from the series “Biographies of Modern Men” (近世俠義伝) and produced in November 1865 by the publisher Iseya Kisaburo (伊勢屋喜三郎) with the collaboration of the engraver Ota Tashichi (太田多七), the writer and journalist Sansantei Arindo (山々亭有人), pseudonym of Jono Saigiku (条野採菊), traces a brief biography of the protagonist, who is presented with the pseudonym Iioka no Sutegoro (飯岳捨五郎).

The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), despite the presence of the right signs of aging as well as two small paper thinning on the margins and some slight wrinkles in the lower part, is in good general condition.