Ancient Chinese painting books and illustrations about the figures of the Water Margin are not uncommon, and there are about ten types in the Ming and Qing dynasties alone. As one of the four great masterpieces, "Water Margin" has always been a subject that painters talked about, both in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad.

"Water Margin" spread to foreign countries, first to Japan. According to the Japanese Sinologist Mr. Naoya Shiraki, "The Legend of the Water Margin: The Legend of the Water Margin": "In the second half of the seventeenth century, the "Water Margin" was transmitted to the Japanese."

 

The novel "Water Margin" first appeared in Japan and was used as a Chinese textbook. By the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the influence of "Water Margin" had spread to the entire reading circle in Japan, and then produced a huge group of Japanese novels and Ukiyo-ebooks based on it.

 

Ukiyo-e is Japanese genre painting, printmaking. It is a kind of unique ethnic art that emerged in the Edo period (1603-1867, also called the Tokugawa shogunate period) in Japan. It is a typical flower street and willow alley art.

 

"Floating world" is originally a Chinese word used to refer to the world of floating, sinking, indecisive, and declining and impermanent. When the word arrived in Japan, in addition to the original accident, it was added the hedonic thought of "Since the world is impermanent, we might as well enjoy it in time", "Ukiyo", so it talks to the unpredictable love of men and women, and the dew couples in the flower street and wine alley. There is a connection. Therefore, Ukiyo-e, a painting that reflects the "impermanence of the world", has a wide range of content and subject matter, including real life, historical stories, and religious legends. Among them, it occupies an extremely important position. , A handsome man and a beautiful girl appearing in a love story.

 

Japanese Ukiyo-e has a high artistic status in the world, and many world painting masters have been influenced by it. In the 19th century, Japan set off an upsurge of Ukiyo-e Water Margin. Among them, the Ukiyo-e monolithic painting "Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Water Margin", created by Ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi, was the most famous Water Margin picture book at the time, which swept the entire Edo.

 

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Kansei 9th-Fumhisa 1st year (1798-1861), a famous Japanese painter of Ukiyoe, Haoichi Yuzuo, Asakuraro, from the Edo period of Japan, is one of the masters of the late Ukiyoe Utagawa School.

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He was born into a silk dyeing workshop family, whose real name is Sun Saburo Inakusa. He became interested in art while helping his father manage his business. He first studied under Utagawa Kunnao, and later was favored by printmaking master Utagawa Toyokuni. In 1811, he was accepted as a disciple. In 1814, he became a teacher and took the stage name Utagawa Kuniyoshi.