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Hello everyone.
My name is Ettore and I'm an Italian student of Japanese language.
In these months I'm gathering materials for my master degree thesis. The main research is studying the Utagawa Kuniyoshi's way of seeing the samurai through woodblock prints. I'm focusing mainly in the Taiheiki euyu den and the 47 ronin.
Right now I have a couple of books
- 101 Great Samurai Prints, edited by John Grafton, Dover Publications Inc
- Kuniyoshi: The Faithful Samurai, David R. Weinberg, Hotei Publishing
- Heroes of the Grand Pacification: Kuniyoshi’s Taiheiki Eiyu den, Elena Varshavskaya, Hotei Publishing

but I need more material to research on.
Is there here some expert of Japanese art that can help me dealing with work?

My mail is
[email protected]

Any help will be very appreciated!

To know the samurai and what they meant to Kuniyoshi, you have to know the story of the Chûshingura. Start there and work toward your conclusion. From the Kuniyoshi Project website (see link below):

"In 1702, Lord Asano of Akô was provoked by Kira Kozukenosuke Yoshinaka into drawing his sword in the shogun’s palace, for which he was forced to take his own life, and his estate was confiscated. Forty-seven of Lord Asano’s retainers, who were now rônin (samurai without masters), planned, and carried out a successful attack on Kira’s palace. Kira’s head was cut off with the same dagger Lord Asano used to commit seppuku. (The term “hara-kiri”, although more common in English than “seppuku”, is considered in Japan to be a vulgar and disrespectful description of an honorable act.). The 46 surviving rônin were forced to take their own lives. These events were made into the kabuki play, “Kanadehon Chûshingura”."

Cheers,
Stan

URL Title :Chûshingura

There may be Lots of good info here: http://www.ukiyo-e.se/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

At the very least there are many folks who may have th knowledge you need -- though quite a few are here, too.

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