ukiyoe - Hakkenden - No.06 Inue Shinbē - Postcard

犬江親兵衛 （Inue Shinbē / いぬえ しんべえ）He holds a crystal prayer bead with ‘仁’ engraved on it. (仁 : jin meaning ‘Perfect virtue‘) 南総里見八犬伝（Nansō Satomi Hakkenden / なんそうさとみはっけんでん / Tale of the Eight Dogs） ＊八犬伝 (Hakkenden) is the largest full-length novel in Japan, written by 曲亭馬琴 (Kyokutei Bakin) in the Yedo period. The story begins when the lord of 安房国 (Awa Province) was in a tight spot during a war and played a joke on his dog 八房 (Yatsufusa). As promised by Yatsufusa, the lord's daughter 伏姫 (Fuse-hime) begins to live with him in the mountains. When Fuse-hime died, her crystal prayer beads (engraved with the words “仁・義・礼・智・忠・信・孝・悌") scattered in the sky. In later years, the 八犬士(Hakkenshi), whose surname includes the Chinese character for “犬( dog)” appeared and played a variety of roles. ＊Title : 本朝剣道略伝　犬江親兵衛（hōnchō kendō ryaku den Inue Shinbē / ほんちょう けんどう りゃく でん いぬえ しんべえ） Author : 朝桜楼 国芳/ Chōrō Kuniyoshi (一勇斎 国芳 / Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi) ＊Note: I used data from the National Diet Library's Digital Collection and made colour corrections. ＊Any of my designs can be transferred to over a thousand other items and adjust the design to fit the product if you needed.