Product Details
101 Great Samurai Prints

101 Great Samurai Prints
By Utagawa Kuniyoshi

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

33 new or used available from $7.81

Average customer review:

Product Description

One of the last great names in the Japanese ukiyo-e style, Kuniyoshi was an undisputed master of the warrior woodblock print — and these 18th-century illustrations represent the pinnacle of his craft. One hundred and one full-color portraits of renowned Japanese samurais pulse with movement, passion, and remarkably fine detail. Includes brief captions and a new introduction.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #40123 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-09-19
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 112 pages

Features

Customer Reviews

Excellent samurai prints5
This book has excellent samurai images with great detail. I really enjoyed the explanations of the prints that explained some of the subtle details. If you enjoy samurai or japanese art, this book is worth the few bucks.

Kuniyoshi's Samurai5
The title of this book pretty much says it all. "101 Great Samurai Prints" is exactly what you get, all by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the last great masters of the Japanese style of woodblock printing known as Ukiyo-e, meaning Pictures of the Floating World.

Kuniyoshi was an apprentice of Utagawa Toyokuni, although he surpassed his master in both talent and fame. Kuniyoshi first rose to fame for his portrayal of heroic characters, such as his series "One hundred and eight heroes of the popular Suikoden all told" based on the Chinese book "Water Margins." He was especially known for the individual flair he could give to the heroes, making them more than just carbon copies of each other but living images with personality and verve.

The images in this series are taken from two Kuniyoshi series, "Heroic Biographies from the "Tale of Grand Pacification" and "The Faithful Samurai." The book is roughly the size of the original prints, being a little under 9 X 11 inches, and the colors and vibrant and beautiful. Each image is accompanied by text explaining shortly what the image is and what story it is portraying. The complete Japanese text on each image is not translated, but there is enough to let you know what is going on.

Some of my favorites are number 37, showing a pale and bloody samurai giving battle although pierced with arrows, or number 99, where a samurai of low character and smug face defends himself behind an overturned basket of charcoal, where Kuniyoshi had sprinkled actual charcoal on the image to create a more realistic effect.

This is really a great collection of Kuniyoshi's samurai pictures. It is somewhat no-frills, but for the price you get a hundred and one beautiful images by one of the great masters of Japanese art.

Title is appropriate5
this book has great samurai prints as promised. also has short explanations of who the men were an some interesting commentary. A must for those interested in samurai dress and weaponry as it shows many atypical types of dress.