Lord Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-1618), the military governor (daimyo) of Hizen Province, is being threatened by the Cat Monster of Saga, which is seeking revenge for the deaths of Ryuzoji Matahichiro and his mother. Killer cats have long been a...
Lord Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-1618), the military governor (daimyo) of Hizen Province, is being threatened by the Cat Monster of Saga, which is seeking revenge for the deaths of Ryuzoji Matahichiro and his mother. Killer cats have long been a...
women; children (people by age group); men (male humans); kimonos; lanterns (lighting devices); fusuma; interior spaces
In the city of Sendai, several assassination attempts were made to overthrow the Date family. The print depicts a masked assassin being overpowered by a family retainer while the young heir is shielded by his nursemaid during an attack in the...
Built complexes and districts; streets; banners; women; men (male humans); palanquins; processions; floats (vehicles); soldiers; kimonos; trees; fans (costume accessories); blinds (coverings); hairstyles; hats
A grand summer festival with a parade of palanquins and floats was staged on the 15th day of the 6th month to celebrate the Mountain Deity (Sanno) of Hie Shrine who had protected Edo Castle since 1478. Ota Dokan (1432-86), the military governor of...
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....
Four of the great Meiji Period kabuki actors are represented in this triptych. Nakamura Shikan IV (1830-1899) in the role of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) is at far right, next to Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1839-1903) playing the part of Rakuganji...
snow (precipitation); men (male humans); women; kimonos; children (people by age group)
Kiuchi Sogoro, as mayor of Kozu-mura (present day Narita City), presented a petition in 1652 directly to the shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna asking tax relief for his farming village because of a bad harvest and harsh treatment by the local governor Hotta...
trees; flowers (plants); men (male humans); women; kimonos; waterfalls (natural bodies of water)
Oguri Hangan, searching for stolen family treasures in Yokoyama, finds his missing fiancee, Princess Terute, working incognito as a maid in the house of a rice merchant. The merchant's daughter, who also loves Hangan, attempts to kill Terute out of...
men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); kimonos
In this comparison, humor dominates lessons in filial piety. While the Chinese lad Yang Xiang was noted for having saved his father from a tiger, the little boy in the lower scene hardly needs to protect his mother from the family cat. In fact,...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); kimonos; trees; built complexes and districts; hairstyles; hair ornaments
A family returns from the Shinto shrine of Kanda Myojin where they have received blessings for their children, including the baby wrapped in a purple cloak decorated with auspicious symbols. The young boy carries a packet of "1000 year candy" /...
Within the series of more than 20 triptychs, at least 2 have close-up scenes, in which the figures dominate the composition. When viewing these images mounted in a handscroll format, the sudden appearance of these large forms in quite jarring...
In a variation on the "Cat Monster of Saga" story, (see plates 34-35 for description of the kabuki play), the mother of Ryuzoji Matahichiro appears to be threatened by Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-1618), who took control of Saga Castle and its domain...
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...
legends (folk tales); women; men (male humans); kimonos; lanterns (lighting devices); children (people by age group); tables (support furniture); arches
The Nabeshima family, daimyo of Hizen Province, continued to be plagued by a cat monster (see Plates 34-35). According to legend, the mistress of the Lord of Saga Castle was killed by a cat monster that possessed her body and then slowly drained...
The warrior Ota Dokan Sukenaga (1432-1486) was caught in a rain storm and sought refuge at a rundown mill. The owner's daughter, instead of bringing him rain gear, delivered a fan decorated with yellow mountain rose flowers / yamabuki, making...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; lanterns (lighting devices); swords; built works; porches
In the epic novel Nanso Satomi Hakkenden by Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848), eight warriors, whose names contain the character for "dog" / ken, are called upon to defend the Satomi family domain. Inuzaka Shino is shown on the verandah of the Taigyu...
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...
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...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; emperors; hats; blinds (curtains); knives
According to legend, the 16 year old Emperor GoKomatsu (1377-1433) greatly loved a woman whose family had ties to the former Southern Court in Yoshino, so that when she became pregnant, suspicions were raised by other imperial concubine about her...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; trees; flowers (plants); mountains; gardens; Single Built Works; fusuma
Kato Shigeuji, the military governor / daimyo of Chikuzen Province in northern Kyushu, became disillusioned with the sensual world and sought spiritual refuge on Mt. Koya, a monastic center on the main island of Honshu. Although he abandoned his...
