Danitrio The Battles of Kawanakajima Makie Fountain Pen

川中島の戦い Kawanakajima no tatakai

This Danitrio makie fountain pen theme Battles of Kawanakajima  bring back some old memory - my favour Samuri movie titled "Heaven and Earth". Do not mistaken this movie with the Hollywood 1993 war movie directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen and Hiep Thu Le.

This block blaster Japanese Heaven and Earth (天と地と, Ten to chi to) was a 1990 film directed by Haruki Kadokawa, starring Enoki Takaaki, Tsugawa Masahiko, Asano Atsuko, Zaizen Naomi and Nomura Hironobu.

The movie is based on the famous fifth battle of the Japanese history Battles of Kawanakajima. They were fought in the Sengoku Period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province in the plain of Kawanakajima, "the island between the rivers", in the north of Shinano Province.

For all those Pokemon fan, the fifth battles are reference in Pokeman Conquest (Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition), in which Kenshin and Shingen share a similar rivalry and settle it with a bet: the first to take five kingdoms from their opponent is the victor.

The first battle was fought in 1553, which Takeda Shingen crashed the Katsurao Castle. Faster forwarded to September 1564, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin meet fifth and final battles.

The Danitrio maki-e artisan Kogakku painting is based on a scene in the fifth battle which Uesugi Kenshin ride his horse charged into Shingen’s camp alone and swung his katana (samurai sword) on Takeda. Uesugi katana was stopped Takeda using his dansen uchiwa (signalling fan).

Artisan Kogaku-san uses the togidashi taka maki-e technique to inject life into the two samurai warriors and the hores with very good details.

As this is a fighting scene, the aggressive expression is lacking in both samurai face. Having said this, the painting is a very typical Japanese drawing of samurai.

This beautiful Danitrio gentai maki-e pen is NOT a limited edition. :-)