A Complete Set of Twelve Woodblock Prints from The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers (Chūshingura, 忠臣蔵)
By Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Published by Aritaya Seiemon (Arita-ya)
1843–1847
Complete set of 12 woodblock prints (12/12), each framed.
Height: 13 1/4 inches; Width: 17 3/8 inches (each frame).
Chūshingura (The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers), often translated as The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, is one of the greatest narratives in Japanese history and the single most celebrated subject in Japanese theater. Based upon the historical Akō Incident of 1701–1703, it recounts the legendary story of the Forty-Seven Rōnin—masterless samurai who avenged the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, after he was ordered to commit harakiri by the Tokugawa shogunate. Having patiently waited nearly two years to avoid suspicion, the rōnin carried out their carefully planned revenge before voluntarily surrendering themselves to the authorities. Their extraordinary loyalty, perseverance, sacrifice, and devotion to honor transformed an actual historical event into Japan's greatest expression of the samurai code.
To avoid censorship during the Edo period, the historical events were fictionalized in 1748 as the eleven-act puppet play Kanadehon Chūshingura, written by Takeda Izumo II, Namiki Sōsuke, and Miyoshi Shōraku. Shortly thereafter it was adapted for the Kabuki stage, where it became the most frequently performed and enduring play in the Japanese theatrical repertoire. Its influence soon extended far beyond the theater, inspiring illustrated books, paintings, novels, films, and, above all, ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Thousands of Chūshingura prints were produced throughout the Edo period, serving not only as works of art but also as theatrical advertisements, souvenirs, and visual retellings of Japan's best-loved story. Today these prints are preserved in major museums and distinguished private collections throughout the world.
Among the numerous pictorial interpretations of Chūshingura, two complete narrative series designed by Utagawa Hiroshige are regarded as particularly significant. The earlier Senichi edition, published around 1835, comprises sixteen prints, expanding the eleventh act into six separate episodes, and remains one of Hiroshige's best-known historical print series. The present collection belongs instead to Hiroshige's later Aritaya Seiemon edition, published between 1843 and 1847, conceived as a complete narrative in twelve scenes. As noted by the early British collector and writer Basil Stewart in Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Colour-Prints (1922), this Aritaya edition is "very uncommon, even more so than the foregoing Senichi issue," and "contains several plates which compare very favourably with the best in the latter." Stewart further observed that the series "has the customary tomo-ye border, and is notable for the unusual treatment of several of the scenes."(https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Stewart/Stewart_Chapter_27.htm）
The present example remains complete as issued (12 of 12), preserving Hiroshige's original narrative sequence—an increasingly rare survival, as complete ukiyo-e series were frequently broken apart and dispersed into individual sheets during the twentieth century.
Unlike many Chūshingura print series that emphasize dramatic confrontations and theatrical action, Hiroshige infused the narrative with the poetic landscape vocabulary for which he is universally celebrated. Dawn and dusk, moonlight and snowfall, Mount Fuji, towering pines, rivers, bridges, temple precincts, castle walls, and distant mountains do far more than provide scenic settings; they become emotional protagonists that mirror the psychological progression of the story. The result is a series that successfully balances theatrical drama with lyrical beauty, revealing Hiroshige's mature artistic language at its finest.
The twelve scenes are described as follows:
Act 1. Wakasa defending Lady Kaoyo from Moronao's insults. Scene in the grounds of the Hachiman Temple; a large torii in the centre, through which can be seen steps leading up to the main gate, and in the distance a range of hills.
Act 2. Konami shyly bringing tea to Rikiya, who is seated in a room in Wakasa's castle, while in another room, on the left, Wakasa watches Honzo as he cuts off a pine branch. One of the best plates in the series.
Act 3. Bannai and his followers stampeding before Kampei's assault; behind him stands Okaru by the bridge over the moat, across which rise the walls and towers of Kamakura Castle. The sky is still dark with the shadows of night.
Act 4. Nightfall: Yuranosuke by the moat in the grounds of the castle after Yenya's harakiri, leaving to prepare his plans for vengeance and so carry out his dying lord's last injunctions. A very unusual treatment of this act.
Act 5. By a huge solitary pine tree stands the robber Sadakuro, counting the money he has just stolen from Yoichibei, whose hat and sandals lie on the ground beside him, and whose body he has thrown to the bottom of the ravine on the left. Sky indicating nightfall, but no rain.
Act 6. Kampei, with musket on shoulder, returning home, passes Okaru on a bridge over a stream as she is being taken away in a kago to the tea-house at Kyoto, followed by the tea-house proprietor looking very pleased with his new acquisition. In the background, behind a large willow tree, stands Okaru's mother at the door of her cottage, waving a farewell to her daughter.
Act 7. Yuranosuke playing blind-man's buff with the girls of the Ichiriki tea-house, and three of the rōnin, Yazama Jiutaro, Senzaki Yagoro, and Takemori Kitahachi, followed by Heiyemon, watching him in disgust. Yuranosuke, in running after one of the girls, has instead seized hold of Yazama, much to the latter's surprise at his chief's conduct.
Act 8. The Bridal Journey. One of the best plates in the set, beautifully coloured. In the background rises a great white-coned Fuji, its lower part streaked with grey, and white clouds floating round it.
Act 9. Honzo arrives at Yuranosuke's house at Yamashina just in time to prevent Tonase taking her daughter's life and her own. On the floor at his feet are his komusō's hat and bamboo flute; behind sits O-ishi with the white-wood stand in front of her on which she demanded Honzo's head as a price of the marriage of her son Rikiya with Konami.
Act 10. Scene outside Gihei's house at night; one of the rōnin about to set on O-Sono and cut off her hair. A very fine plate, the masterpiece of the set, and most effectively coloured.
Act 11. First Episode. Snow scene at night in the grounds of Moronao's castle. Moronao, discovered in his hiding-place in an outhouse used to store wood and charcoal, one of the rōnin blows a whistle, a prearranged signal that their enemy had been found.
Act 11. Second Episode. The rōnin, headed by Yuranosuke and Rikiya, in the sunrise of early morning making their way to the Temple of Sengakuji with the head of their enemy, which one of the rōnin carries in a kind of urn. A fine plate.
An especially remarkable feature of the present collection is that each frame retains its original English typewritten identification label mounted on the reverse. These labels summarize the corresponding scenes while preserving contemporary critical observations such as "One of the best plates in the series," "The masterpiece of the set," and "A very unusual treatment of this act." Their texts closely correspond to the descriptions published by Basil Stewart in Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Colour-Prints (1922), suggesting that they were prepared with reference to one of the earliest and most influential English-language studies devoted specifically to the subjects of Japanese colour woodblock prints. The labels themselves have consequently become an integral part of the collection's provenance, documenting how ukiyo-e were studied, catalogued, and appreciated by Western collectors during the first half of the twentieth century.
This set comes from a distinguished California private collection. Acquired in Kyoto shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War by the present owner's mother. Preserved together by descent within the same family for nearly eighty years, the collection retains not only all twelve original prints, but also the original matching frames and the accompanying English typewritten labels, providing an unusually complete record of its postwar journey from Kyoto to California.
Complete narrative ukiyo-e series have become increasingly scarce as collectors and dealers frequently dispersed them into individual sheets over the past century. Preserved complete with all twelve original prints, their original descriptive labels, matching frames, and a continuous family provenance from postwar Kyoto to California, the present Aritaya edition represents not only one of the rarest surviving editions of Hiroshige's Chūshingura, but also an exceptional document of twentieth-century Western appreciation for Japanese woodblock prints. Combining literary significance, artistic achievement, remarkable completeness, and an unusually well-documented collecting history, this collection stands among the finest surviving examples of Hiroshige's celebrated interpretation of Japan's greatest tale of loyalty and sacrifice.
