Akoya, an entertainer in Kyoto’s Kiyomizu zaka pleasure quarters, was mistress to the Heike warrior Taira Kagekiyo (died 1196), who was captured at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 but had escaped. The Genji commander ordered Hatakeyama Shigetada...
An image of a rat. Raigo was a stern man, a priest whose duties included maintaining discipline among the acolytes of Mii Temple. A member of the influential Fujiwara family, he became spiritual adviser to Emperor Shirakawa (reigned 1072-86). ...
An image of a warrior with sword and bow and arrows in the foreground, looking back at human/demon forms dancing in the background. Minamoto no Tametomo was, like Oniwaka/Benkei (7), an extremely violent youth. By the time he was fifteen he is...
An image of a warrior with sword and bow and arrows in the foreground, looking back at human/demon forms dancing in the background. Minamoto no Tametomo was, like Oniwaka/Benkei (7), an extremely violent youth. By the time he was fifteen he is...
Beneath drying autumn grasses, the aged Komachi sits gazing at the moon. Ono no Komachi was a beautiful, intelligent woman and one of the most accomplished early court poets. As a young woman she was pursued by many suitors, most of whom she...
Once upon a time, a woodcutter saved a badger's life. In gratitude the badger, which, like a fox, is capable of many transformations (see no. 3), turned itself into a tea kettle. The woodcutter sold the kettle to a priest at Morin Temple in the...
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...
The oldest known Japanese narrative, this sad fairy tale dates back to the 9th or 10th century. In this tale Kaguya-hime was found inside a bamboo stalk by a bamboo cutter, who took her home and raised her as his daughter. As she grew up the fame...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); boys; kimonos; actors; swords; bamboo
This appears to be a variation of "The Bamboo Room" scene from Act II of the play "The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai / Meiboku Sendai hagi." In the standard kabuki play version, the shogun's son Tsuruchiyo is friends with Senmatsu,...
