Catalog record · 目録番号 29290
Kiyomori Sees Skulls
Catalog note / 解説
This print depicts a scene from the Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), which describes events surrounding the Gempei Wars of 1181-1185 between the Minamoto and Taira clans. Here we see the once mighty and ever ruthless head of the Taira, Kiyomori (whose hunger for power was legendary), facing demons of delusion. His reputation as a tyrant was well known, and his demise and eventual death from convulsions and fever were a popular topic for woodblock print artists. Master landscapist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) places the aging Kiyomori on a balcony in winter, gazing across an icy pond at a landscape formed by skulls in the snow. His defiant stance is no match for the mass of trees,…
Image record / 画像情報
Honolulu · c. 1843 -1847 · honolulu
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