Two Characters from the Popularized "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"

Copyright 2008, Phillip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, All Rights Reserved.

The image on the left is the image you can find hanging in the Berman Art Gallery. The image on the right is one that I have edited to bring out the colors and to restore it to what I think the print looked like right off the final wood block.





(The essay is down here)

This picture depicts two characters from the epic The Romance of Three Kingdoms. The story is one of the most famous ever told in China. The story starts with a weak government where the emperor was controlled by ten wicked eunuchs. These eunuchs caused the government to become corrupted and created many laws that made the people suffer. Because of this the leaders and generals from all provinces started to fight; to unite the land of China and restore peace to the country. The story ends, after a little less than a century of war, with China once again united.

The story main focuses on the 3 major kingdoms that were founded during the civil war. Cao Cao led the Kingdom of Wei, he was a mighty general and great warrior, ambitious yet good in strategy. He gathered the best generals and advisors. Even though Cao Cao was a man with much power, he was unable to unify China.

Sun Quan was made king when his brother was killed in battle, he was still young when he held the throne, but with the great aid from many famous advisors, he formed the Kingdom of Wu. It was a mighty kingdom well known for its skill in marine battle. This was proved when Cao Cao battled with the Wu and Shu armies in Chibi; he ended up losing more than 1 million of his troops.

Liu Bei, said to be son of the late Han emperor, was the sworn brother to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Both of them were fierce fighters who accompanied many other famous warriors. These three soon formed, with the help of two other famous men, the 5 Tiger Generals who have become the pillars for the Shu Kingdom. No one can deny that the success of Shu kingdom was also because of the clever strategist, Zhuge Liang, said to be known as the Hidden Dragon. His war tactics have been said to influence China, in many ways.

The story ends with Liu Shan, Liu Bei’s son, surrendering without a battle and conceded the Kingdom of Shu-Han to the Wei Kingdom. In Wu, there was internal conflict among the nobles ever since the death of Sun Quan. There was a struggle for power among the nobles, with many being assassinated but eventually the power of Eastern Wu went back into the hands of the emperor. In Wei, the Wei emperor was forced to abdicate, and Sima Yan established the Jin Dynasty in AD 265, declaring himself the first emperor of the new dynasty. Sima Yan then ordered the Jin troops to attack Eastern Wu from the former land of Shu-Han and succeeded in conquering Eastern Wu after a long period of struggle. And that is the summary of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

I think that these two characters are Liu Bei, the one on the right, and Cao Cao. I feel that the man on the right is Liu Bei because he looks more like the man you would expect to be a hero, a man that is mature, strong and capable. If we take the man on the right to be Liu Bei, then you can see how he is played off of the foe behind him. Bei is looking over his shoulder at Cao warily, with a frown that is full of anger- a way that one looks at an enemy. Bei also looks to be steadying himself after having been attacked, he is leaning to the right with his foot and hand ready to catch him and steady him against the incline. Bei, in the epic, seems to be a very grounded man- and his armor reflects that in this image. His clothing stays close to his body, and although it is extravagant, it is fairly form fitting.

As to why I think the person behind Liu Bei is Cao Cao, that is because this man is very insane looking. In my summary I did not really discuss Cao Cao, but in the story he is not described in a flattering manner. He is said to be power hungry and will stop at nothing to get it. He looks animalistic in this picture and does not seem to be able to control himself. He is darker than Bei, and has clothes that seem to be whirling around him. This gives the viewer the impression that he is unstoppable, as well as uncontrollable.

As for my first impressions of this piece, they were focused on the characters looking almost like a two headed monster. This ‘monster’ looks scary, big, and hairy, which reflects on how the Japanese viewed the foreigners. I also noticed immediately, it was my third note I wrote when I started studying the picture, that there was a major discrepancy in the print. There is a long black line running from the lower left side of the print up until past Cao Cao’s face. It is most noticeable on his face because the line causes some major discoloration. Also because of this defect, there is a rather large white spot on Cao Cao’s pant leg. This is rather distressing because this looks to be a new print. There are no problems with the lines, but I think because of the ‘crack’ the colors in other parts of the print are also shifted. This Ukio-e is also a later print, you can tell because of all the colors and detail put into it.

The man who made this print was Utagawa Kuniyoshi, or in the American way of writing names Kuniyoshi Utagawa. Kuniyoshi was born in 1797 under the different name of Yoshisaburō. His father worked in textiles and designed patterns; he apparently enlisted Yoshisaburō for help in his work, because Kuniyoshi’s prints often show rich color and detail in the clothing that is said to have been engraved into his head through helping his father. When Yoshisaburō turned 12 he was already noted for his drawings, but he was not formally accepted into a school until he turned 14 and was admitted into Toyokuni Utagawa’s school of art. Yoshisaburō was there for three years until he received the name Kuniyoshi at which time he set out to start his own work.

Although Kuniyoshi started off well, his career did not progress for many years and he ended up selling used tatami mats at one point to pay bills. But when he received the job to create the Tūszoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori, or one hundred and eight heroes of the popular Suikoden, his career turned right back around. Kuniyoshi became famous for this series and received many other commissions. Kuniyoshi is still most famous for his warrior prints, although he did branch out to many other sections of Ukio-e such as Kabuki prints and animals, most often felines. Kuniyoshi died at the age of 65, after having a successful career and being a well admired man and teacher. He lived to see Yokohama’s ports open to the Westerners, and even attempted to make a print of it, but since he had a crippling disease his detail was not as great as the picture that we see above.