Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Seiga-ken no Sanbushō (Wu Song)

Glossary (2)

netsuke, nishiki-e

  • netsuke

    The netsuke is a form of toggle that was used to secure personal items suspended on cords from the kimono sash. These items included purses, medicine cases or tobacco paraphernalia.

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Kuniyoshi’s Heroes of China and Japan by Oliver Impey and Mitsuko Watanabe

    Kuniyoshi’s Heroes of China and Japan

    Suikoden chapter 22


    Seiga-ken no Sanbushō was born in Seiga-ken (Qinghe xian), later becoming a 'gyōja', a Buddhist ascetic. He was much too fond of saké which frequently made him fighting drunk. On one occasion, Sanbushō, wearing his trade-mark red clothing and having drunk too much at a saké bar in Keiyōtō (Jingyanggang) was offered a bed by the landlord as there was a tiger lurking in the area that had already killed twenty-five people. Sanbushō laughed, ignored the innkeeper and left the bar. As expected, the infamous tiger appeared, and attacked Sanbushō. After a long and bloody battle, he finally killed the beast with his bare hands.


    In this print, Sanbushō, who is firmly holding the tiger with his left hand, clenches his right fist and is about to give a blow to the tiger's head. This exploit became famous and he was rewarded by a local lord; he divided the prize-money among the local hunters, and thereafter became head of the lord's garrison.

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