Kôkoku Hideo Soroi (Brave Men of the Empire)

The Meiji period (1868-1912) saw the restoration of the figure of the emperor as the highest political leader of the nation, replacing the shogun, or military leader. Thus, with Emperor Mutsuhito (or Meiji) there was a nationalist movement of exaltation of the imperial dynasty and an exaltation of military values. This series of Kôkoku Hideo Soroi prints is an anthology of samurai who exemplify the values of the samurai warrior and the ideals of the Empire. This genre called musha-e, dedicated to fight scenes of famous warriors, developed with great success since the mid-19th century, within the framework of the popular Ukiyo-e school of printmaking. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Tsukioka Yoshi- toshi (1839-1892) and their numerous disciples excelled in the production of these dynamic and violent fight scenes.At this time, colorful Ukiyo-e prints began to arrive in Europe. The geisha and samurai became the embodiment of the idealized heroic and gallant Japan. Both for the domestic market, but above all for export to the West, in the second half of the 19th century some publishers employed, with more commercial than artistic success, some striking resources in the prints, such as the use of crepe paper, known in Japanese as chirimen. To edit these resistant prints, a procedure called momidai was used, which consisted of giving the paper (already printed with the drawing and colors) a texture similar to crumpled silk, pressing it slightly moistened on a rough-textured mold. Once dry, by folding, the print reduces its original size, which in this case, was printed with plates of the usual ôban format, of approximately 38 x 25 cm. / Bibliography: ALMAZÁN TOMÁS, D.: “Kôkoku Hideo Soroi- Brave men of the Empire. Meiji Period (1868-1912). S. XIX. Japan”, in LÓPEZ GUZMÁN, R.; RUIZ GUTIÉRREZ, A.; SORROCHE CUERVA, M.A. (Scientific Coord.): Oriente en Granada (Exhibition Catalogue). Granada, 2008, pp.: 74-75