A Samurai, shot with seven arrows, holds a broken and bloodied sword overhead while he continues battle

Japanese Samurai Woodblock Print

Ishikawa Sôsuke Sadatomo at the Battle of Shizu-ga-mine in 1583

🕖 Reading Time, 3 minutes

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1862) one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting. Although he depicted a broad range of subjects, he was most famous for his depictions of the battles of samurai and legendary heroes.A Samurai, pierced with seven arrows and bleeding, holds a broken and bloodied sword overhead while he continues battle.

Though I have several of his original prints, my favorite is number 27, Ishikawa Sôsuke Sadatomo at the Battle of Shizu-ga-mine in 1583. This samurai is shown with a bloody and broken sword held high, despite a half dozen arrow wounds.

Combat Mindset

This print is a reminder that you never stop fighting. Not even when all your weapons are broken and bloody. Not even with seven arrows sticking out of your body. That combat mindset allows people to survive horrible trauma and still live. That combat mindset makes you very hard to kill.

For years, this image was the title page for workbooks for tactical first aid courses I designed and taught.

Limited Edition Prints

A photograph of the red color block of a 3-color woodcut print, including the print with the red and blue blocks printedShortly after we completed recording the Tactical Casualty Care series, while on a family outing in Astoria, Oregon, we came across a local woodblock artist, whose work is very art deco, distilled down images. He hand carves each block from wood he has brought in from Japan. It turns out that Peter Nevins is also a huge Samurai film geek. When asked if he could do a transformative simplification of Kuniyoshi’s work, he immediately agreed. After a few drawings back and forth, Peter was able to carve three blocks for us, black, red, and blue, to create the new image for Crisis Medicine. One hundred signed, numbered prints are available on the website now, with T-shirts and other items becoming available as we build the online courses.

A detail photograph of the woodcut block for the black printing block
Interested in a limited edition print or T-shirt? Email us and get on the list. Or check the website now for prints.

 

Mike Shertz MD/18D

Dr. Mike Shertz is the Owner and Lead Instructor at Crisis Medicine. Dr. Shertz is a dual-boarded Emergency Medicine and EMS physician, having spent over 30 years gaining the experience and insight to create and provide his comprehensive, science-informed, training to better prepare everyday citizens, law enforcement, EMS, and the military to manage casualties and wounded in high-risk environments. Drawing on his prior experience as an Army Special Forces medic (18D), two decades as an armed, embedded tactical medic on a regional SWAT team, and as a Fire Service and EMS medical director.

Using a combination of current and historical events, Dr. Shertz’s lectures include relevant, illustrative photos, as well as hands-on demonstrations to demystify the how, why, when to use each emergency medical procedure you need to become a Force Multiplier for Good.

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