Gekko Ogata (1859-1920) – Night Attack of the Soga (Brothers)

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1896. The current print was printed in the late 19th century, or early 20th century.

This print is part of Ogata Gekko’s series “One Hundred Fujis”. In woodblock prints of Mount Fuji, it is common to see the shape of Mount Fuji reflected in other elements depicted. Here, however, only the reflection in the banner on the left is present, and Mount Fuji itself is not depicted.

The focus of the scene is on the two warriors, with Goro in the front. Goro and his brother Juro are avenging their father’s death by attacking his killer, Kudo Suketsune, when he was near Mount Fuji with a hunting camp. They succeed, but Juro is killed in battle and Goro is captured. It is unusual for a warrior of his stature to be captured, and this is the moment that Gekko depicts: A samurai disguised himself as a woman, so Goro did not recognize the danger he represented, and the samurai was able to clench his arms around him. In the print, the robe that falls off the samurai is visible and was part of the deception that led to Goro’s capture.

Image size (excluding margins): 32.4 * 21.4 cm (12.8 * 8.4 in).

The print is in very good state. There are a few very faint wrinkles, horizontally stretching from the left margin into the image around the banner, and vertically from the bottom margin upwards. At the bottom of the image there is some mild discoloration that might have been caused by humidity. Printed on thin washi paper, unbacked, and with a small note in pencil on the back.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Gekko Ogata (1859 – 1920) was a self-taught Japanese painter and woodblock artist. He was a prolific artist with a strong work ethic and produced many paintings, woodblock prints, and illustrations for various media. In later years, attention to his works was less than for artists such as Tsukioka Yoshitoshi or Yoshu Chikanobu, but in recent years there has been renewed interest. For an in-depth overview of his life and work, there is an excellent resource in Amy Reigle Newland’s “Printed and Painted. The Meiji Art of Ogata Gekko (1859-1920)”.

His works feature traditional ukiyo-e themes, such as flowers and beautiful women. These prints are typically relatively affordable. Another, more expensive genre, is that of Japanese legends, heroes, and history. For both these genres, we have many woodblock prints on offer, and we hope to add more in the future of his landscape prints and those of other genres.

See an overview of Gekko Ogata's woodblock prints