This page catalogs all known prints in the Yoshitoshi‘s series ‘Eimei kumiuchi zoroi (英名 組討 揃 – Famous Fights Between Brave Men)’.
This is a rarely seen early series, published early in Yoshitoshi’s career. Several prints in it strongly resemble prints done by his master Kuniyoshi, clearly showing his influence on the young Yoshitoshi.
Keyes indicates that later impressions are known, with new colour blocks.
Technical details
- Dates: 11/1865 – 01/1866
- Size: ōban
- Signed: Gyokuō / Kaisai Yoshitoshi hitsu
- Seal: Gyokuō / Kiri
- Publisher: Moriji
- Engravers: Matsushima Hori Masa, Hori Ōta Tashichi
Previous cataloguings
One of the first attempts to enumerate this series was in Keyes’ thesis:
Roger. S. Keyes, "Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1839-1892", Cinncinnati, 1982
where it appears as series #149; he listed only 4 prints in the series. The next listing was in:
Eric van den Ing, Robert Schaap, "Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892", Havilland, Eindhoven, 1992
where it appears as series #14 (pages 38, 103); they listed a further 4 prints (using Keyes’ reference numbers for the first 4), making 8 in total. We have discovered an additional 3 prints so far, making 11 prints in all at the moment.
We use the Keyes/B+V numbers for the first 8, and have numbered the rest in the order in which we discovered them; the prints in the series do not appear to have any numbers on them.
The total number of prints in the series is unknown. Please help us discover additional prints!
If you have either i) information about any errors on the page, ii) better images than the ones below, please let us know.
