Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden Review

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(More customer reviews)Of all the superb books published by Hotei on the subject of Japanese woodblock prints, Inge Klompmakers' "Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden" is far and away my favorite.This reflects not only my enthusiasm for the 19th-century artist Kuniyoshi but also an appreciation of the rich symbolism embedded in his treatment of the "Suikoden" heroes.
The "Suikoden" (the term is the Japanese rendition of the original Chinese title of "Shuihu zhuan") is a epic Chinese novel that is known in English as both "The Water Margin" and "All Men are Brothers."The novel, which lionizes an outlaw band of 108 men who commit crimes on behalf of the common people, was first translated into Japanese in the late 18th century.In the 19th century, a reworking of the novel brought it to an evenwider Japanese audience, and at this juncture a number of leading print artists--including Hokusai and Yoshitoshi--illustrated it. However, it is the treatment of the bandits by Kuniyoshi--who depicted 75 of the 108 heroes--which has enjoyed the most enduring popularity and influence.
In the original Chinese novel, six of the 108 bandits are described as tattooed.In Kuniyoshi's series, covering just 75 of the bandits, that number was expanded to 15, and Kuniyoshi's "Suikoden" series became the leading evolutionary influence on Japan's complex style of tattooing.
Recently the "Suikoden" has enjoyed a major renaissance of popularity.Kuniyoshi's prints are revered by the international tattooing community, and the novel itself has inspired a series of fantasy games.Beyond these considerations, it is worth examining Kuniyoshi's accomplishment within its historical context.In the late 19th century, the Japanese enjoyed increased access to literature from abroad, had an urbanized population that supported a vigorous publishing industry, and perfected the technology of woodblock printing.These three developments jointly produced an extraordinary marriage of text and art, a marriage that enriches us all today.

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This is the first monograph in English on the stunning series "One hundred and eight heroes of the Suikoden". "The Suikoden" is the Japanese adaptation of the 14th-century Chinese vernacular novel "Shuihu zhuan", which recounts the exploits of a group of brave and righteous rebels on Mount Liang. "The Suikoden" was enormously popular in Japan during the 19th century. It was Kuniyoshi's initial designs for the single-sheet print series "The one hundred and eight heroes of the Suikoden (Tsûzoku Suikoden gôketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori)" --in which the full-length portraits of the heroes are charged with a new sense of dynamism -- that spurred a "Suikoden" craze in Edo (present-day Tokyo). This publication reproduces the 74 known designs of the series in full color, each accompanied by an explanatory text. Many of the designs still inspire Japanese tattooists, and supplementary information on this subject is also included in the book.
86 color and 20 b&w illustrations.

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