Utagawa Sadahide, "Great Battle at Ichi-no-tani"

The Battle at Ichi-no-tani west of Kobe in 1194 pitted the Minamoto clan with the Taira clan and was the decisive battle of the Genpei Wars which set the stage for Minamoto's establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate. Fought between the sea and mountains, this design wonderfully contrasts the chaos of the battle with a setting sun in the distance and a flock of birds flying in formation above. On the left is the famous Minamoto warrior Kumagai Naozane on horseback, while Taira no Tadanori and Okabe no Tadazumi are pitched in an epic struggle in the middle. Taira no Noritsune is shown on the right. A marvelous design!

Date: 1857
Size: Oban Triptych
Publisher: Fujiokaya Keijiro
Condition: Excellent color and condition

Utagawa Sadahide (1807-1873) was a renewed woodblock print artist of the late-Edo and Meiji period whose works spanned classic Japanese military history and yokohama-e and the modernization taking place at the time of the Meiji Restoration.