Minamoto no Raiko and Sakata Kintoki (源頼光 阪田公時). Original color woodblock print from the series Yoshitoshi musha burui - 芳年武者无類 (?Yoshitoshis ausgew?hlte Krieger“). SIGNATURE: Yoshitoshi ga. SEAL: Taiso. PUBLISHER: Tsunashima Kamekichi.
Oban, approx. 35,8 x 24,4 cm. 1883/86
Minamoto no Raiko (Minamoto no Yorimitsu 944 - 1021) finds the mountain child Kintaro while hunting in den Ashigara Mountains, who should become one of the four famous vassals (shi-tenno). Kintaro or Kintoki, the Gold Boy, is usually depicted as a chubby-cheeked child with red skin, in the company of his animal friends. Yoshitoshis Kintoki′s interpretation with a dwarf′s body covered with profuse hair, fat like a Sumotori and crouching rather dull-minded on the ground, is very unusual and in no way corresponds to the common cliché.
From an old New York collection (German war refugees), which was offered February 1995 by Gallery Zacke in a special exhibition.