Kurihara Saisuke dodging bullets
Colour print from woodblocks. Ôban format.
Block-carver: Hori Ôta Tashichi. Biographical text
by Sanzantei Arindô (Sankanjin Kôrai). Publisher: Iseki
(Manyôdô). 12/1865.
Keyes 147-21
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From the series of thirty-six Biographies of Modern Men (Kinsei kyôgiden) published in 1865-6.
Click here for other prints in this series.
Firearms had been introduced into Japan when a Portuguese blew off course and landed on Kyushu in 1542. They quickly revolutionised Japanese warfare, but were rarely depicted in Edo period prints, because of the ban on depicting current or historical events within the period of the Tokugawa regime.
Bequeathed
by Dr Thomas Donald Kellaway, 2002
P.206-2002