battles; men (male humans); warriors; warships; bodies of water
Minamoto Yoshitsune's story is the subject of many stories and plays which treat him as an archetype of doomed valor. The brother of Minamoto Yoritomo, who founded the shogunate, Yoshitsune was placed in a monastery after his father's death in an...
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...
women; men (male humans); warriors; armor (protective wear); kimonos; hats; swords; halberds; snow (precipitation); mountains; waterfalls (natural bodies of water); built works
In the snowy mountains of Yoshino, the Genji warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189) meets up with his beloved Lady Shizuka. Yoshitsune is on-the-run, moving from southern to northern Japan with his retainers, including the former monk Benkei,...
On the beach of Yashima, an island off Shikoku, Minamoto Yoshitsune's forces did battle with the Taira on 24 March 1185. When the governor of Noto Province, Taira no Noritsune (1160-1185), raised his bow to shoot Yoshitsune, the brothers Sato...
women; kimonos; children (people by age group); porches; men (male humans); Single Built Works; blinds (coverings); swords
Two married women and a young girl are shown leaving a gated compound, and the text panel indicates that one is the wife of the warrior Kajiwara Kagesue (1162-1200) who has taken a branch of cherry blossoms. At right is a young messenger boy...
Sata Tadanobu, katana drawn, leaps through the air in a snowy landscape. Panels of his armor and the cords binding them fly about him, and he has a bunch of arrows lashed to his back.
This short biography of the famed kabuki actor Bando Hikosaburo V (1832-1877) was written by the novelist Okamoto Kisen and illustrated by Chikanobu. Hikosaburo came from a family of carpenters living in the Asakusa area of Edo and was adopted in...
The actor Ichikawa Danjûrô IX as Benkei in the kabuki play Kanjincho. Ichikawa Danjûrô IX (1839-1903) was one of the key figures in the move to modernize Kabuki performance in the Meiji era (1868-1911) and was a friend of Yoshitoshi. The plot...
warriors; women; men (male humans); torches (lighting devices); nobility; built works; armor (protective wear)
The young noble or onzoshi called Ushiwakamaru, who would later be known as the great warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), traveled to Mutsu Province, in the north of the main island, where he sought lodgings one night in a cottage. When the...
Although the Heike forces had fled to boats off the shore of Yashima, one vessel turned back to the beach. At its prow stood a young woman, dressed in beautiful court garments, who took a folding fan decorated with the rising sun emblem and...
group portrait; women; children (people by age group); swords; kimonos; men (male humans); snowstorms
Lady Tokiwa was a Japanese noblewoman of the late Heian period. A concubine or wife to Minamoto no Yoshitomo, she bore him three sons, one of whom became the great samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. After Yoshitomo's death in 1160, she fled...
porches; blinds (coverings); women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); flowers (plants); trees; kimonos; swords
The Heike leader Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), at right, stares down at Lady Tokiwa Gozen, whose husband, Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-1180), was recently killed. She had fled Kyoto with her three sons, concerned that the Heike forces would kill...
This popular series that illustrates the war stories of the Heike monogatari was first published in 1898-99 by Fukuda Heijiro and then reissued (in this case in 1906 by a different publisher). The later editions are less subtly colored, but the...
In the last act of this 5 act play "Lord Kiichi's Three Books of Tactics" / Kiichi hogen sanryaku no maki written for the puppet theater in 1731, the famous warrior Yoshioka Kiichi has retired from the conflicts between the Genji and Heike clans....
children (people by age group); women; kimonos; musical instruments; lanterns (lighting devices); bridges (built works); zithers
The young boy Ushiwakamaru (later known as Minamoto no Yoshitsune 1159-1189) is shown in the garden, talking with a servant of Princess Joruri, who is playing a zither / koto. According to the 15th century Joruri-hime monogatari, Joruri was the...
women; kimonos; children (people by age group); snow (precipitation); trees; hats
Tokiwa gozen had to flee Kyoto in the dead of winter after her husband Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-60) was murdered and their home pillaged. (See Plate 55) Here she clasps to her chest their youngest son Ushiwaka, wrapped in orange brocade; he will...
