legends (folk tales); men (male humans); robes (main garments);
In Japanese and Chinese legend eight magical cassia trees grow on the moon. Their red leaves in autumn are said to give the harvest moon its color. The trees' seeds bestow immortality and also give the power of invisibility to those who eat them....
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); robes (main garments)
In Japanese and Chinese legend eight magical cassia trees grow on the moon. Their red leaves in autumn are said to give the harvest moon its color. The trees' seeds bestow immortality and also give the power of invisibility to those who eat them....
The ten year old boy Kusunoki Masatsura (1326-48), following his father's defeat and death at the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336, considered committing suicide, but his mother stopped him, reminding him of his moral obligations to support the emperor...
The alleged poisoning of the great warrior Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611) was the subject of a kabuki play that premiered in 1807, but due to government censorship at the time, the main character's name was changed Sato Masakiyo. According to legend,...
An image of a beautiful woman and an old crone with a lamp made of peony flowers. The Peony Lantern is a ghostly romance adapted from an old Chinese tale by the novelist Encho in 1884. The chilling story was extremely popular and was dramatized...
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); armor (protective wear); Buddhas
An armored samurai is wrestling a red demon and multitude of skeletons under the gaze of a grinning yellow Buddha. Toki Motosada has seized the demon by the wrist and is throwing it down. Moths flutter around them under a full moon.
Where...
warriors; armor (protective wear); swords; helmets; halberds; women; kimonos; hats; Single Built Works; snow (precipitation); arrows
In the play "Yoshitsune's 1000 Cherry Trees / Yoshitsune senbon zakura," the warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1185) must journey to a distant island and entrusts his beloved mistress Shizuka gozen to his friend Sato Tadanobu (1161-1186) for...
men (male humans); women; trees; snow (precipitation); kimonos; sandals; hats; built works; stables (animal housing)
In the dead of winter, a Buddhist priest showed up unexpectedly at the cottage of Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo in Yashu (Shimotsuke Province, modern Tochigi Prefecture). The impoverished warrior offered what hospitality he could, although recently he had...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; flowers (plants); parasols
Princess Sakura fell in love with the Buddhist monk Seigen of the Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto. He believes she is the reincarnation of a young acolyte he had loved many years before; Seigen and the boy had vowed a double suicide by leaping off the...
women; kimonos; built works; built complexes and districts
The esoteric Buddhist deity Marishiten is of Indian origin, the daughter of Brahma (J: Bonten) and associated with rays of the sun. Images of Marishi have multiple arms and faces and are shown riding a wild boar, hence the association with this...
actors; built works; trees; men (male humans); kimonos; hats; hair ornaments; flowers; arrows; bells (idiophones); swords
Actors gather outside the main hall of the Ooku residential area to give a special performance for the new year on the first "horse day" of the 2nd month (according to the zodiac calendar). One actor carries a hunting bird while another actor is...
Emperors; courts (social groups); fountains; kimonos; military uniforms; lanterns (lighting devices); flags; trees; Built complexes and districts; clock towers; bands (ensembles)
The emperor and court ladies stand between two fountains that flank the entry into the Ueno Park compound housing the Second National Industrial Exhibition that was open to the public from 01 March to 30 June 1881. Such fairs followed European and...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; folding screens; flowers (plants); swords
Princess Sen (1597-1666) was the oldest daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada and married at age 7 to Toyotomi Hideyori who died in 1615 at the Battle of Osaka Castle. She was then married to Honda Tadatoki, a Tokugawa ally, but when Tadatoki died in 1626,...
Of the 50 prints in the series, 7 depict women of the Meiji Era, although none of them wear Western clothes. This is different from Yoshitoshi's 1888 series "32 Aspects of Daily Life / Fuzoku sanjuniso" which has 9 women (out of 32) identified with...
The Soga Brothers were historical figures whose vow of revenge has resonated in kabuki and noh theaters for centuries. Juro Sukenari (1172-1193) and Goro Tokimune (1174-1193) were the children of Kawazu Sukeyasu, an ally of the Taira clan, who was...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; folding screens; children (people by age group); flowers (plants); interior spaces; built works
A baby receives his first bath, with his fisherman father Myomeijiro holding a towel, his grandmother at the wooden tub and his mother Umechiyo recovering with a cup of tea. The child would become the Buddhist prelate Nichiren (1222-1282), whose...
swords; men (male humans); women; snow (precipitation); trees; mountains; hats
The famous bandit Ishikawa Goemon (died 1594) hid out in the Mountain Gate of Nanzen-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto. According to the kabuki play "Temple Gate and Paulownia Crest" / Sanmon gozan no kiri, he wanted to avenge his father's death...
A woman leans lightly forward to play a koto. While she appears to be inside, backed by a folding screen and seated near a paper lantern that glows softly, the inset shows blossoming cherry trees around Shinobazu Pond at Ueno, with its shrine to...
women; children (people by age group); kimonos; trees; shrines (structures); men (male humans)
A mother and daughter join others in a pilgrimage on New Year's Day to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in the auspicious directions from where they live, in order to obtain good luck and prosperity in the coming year. The hall at left is...
women; children (people by age group); kimonos; hats; trees; temples
A mother carries her son, who is wearing a tam-o'shanter or daikoku zukin, a cap associated with Daikokuten, God of Wealth and one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. The boy's kimono has various auspicious symbols, including a magic mallet (used by...
