Thread by @danielmitsuiart

The past few days, I have seen this image circulating on social media. Since some posts did not include identifying information, there has been confusion about what it depicts, who made it, and when it was made. If you see people asking about this image, please direct them here.

I drew this picture in 2010. It depicts St. Michael the Archangel (not St. George), as a samurai. Specifically, it illustrates the Biblical verse Rev 12.7: And there was a great battle in heaven; Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels.

The drawing was commissioned by a religious priest whose order had done missionary work in Japan. The idea to transpose a subject from Christian iconography into the style of an ukiyo-e print was his suggestion; I had never drawn anything like this before.

(My work is mostly based on medieval European art, such as illuminated manuscripts.)

Although (as my name suggests) I have Japanese ancestors, I do not speak Japanese, have never been to Japan, and claim no expertise in Japanese culture.

Although this scene depicts an event in the future, and therefore cannot exactly be judged for historical accuracy, I now know that the clothing and weaponry and style overall are not quite that of a 16th century samurai depicted by a 19th cenury artist.

I was doing my best in my first attempt to draw something like this, and I think that I have improved as I learned more about Japanese art. Indeed, it was the preliminary research for this commission that introduced me to some of my favorite artists.

The drawing was made with pigment-based calligraphy inks on Bristol board, with gold leaf. (If I remember correctly, I initially used brass leaf, and later replaced it with gold.) At the time that I drew it, I was just beginning to sell giclée prints of my work.

Due to my experience making intaglio prints and lithographs in college, I thought that it was customary to issue all art prints in limited editions — so the first few giclée prints that I issued were signed and numbered.

(I later learned that it is not best practice to do this with digital prints, so I now only sell digital prints in open editions.)

This drawing became far more popular than I ever expected, and I sold all of the prints quickly. Since I limited the edition, I was not allowed to make more.

Because so many people continued to ask me for them, I decided to make another, similar drawing, this one with several angels and dragons, and with a composition similar to a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer. I finished this one in 2013.

Although I prefer this second drawing, the first one was still more popular. So I decided to make a new drawing that is very similar to the first one.

This third drawing was finished in 2018. It has a different background (with lightning instead of a moon), different colors and fabric paterns, and is larger. I drew it on washi, is Japanese tissue paper.

All of these original drawings have been sold, but prints of the latter two are available, here:

danielmitsui.com/00_pages/battl…

And here:

danielmitsui.com/00_pages/mirig…

I have drawn several other subjects in a Japanese style, including the Second Dream of St. Joseph, the Temptation of St. Anthony, the Wedding at Cana, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.