Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周) (artist 1835 – 1900)
Nakamura Shikan IV as the Priest Mongaku Shōnin in Mitate Nachi no taki Mongaku Shōnin (見立那智瀧文覚上人)
1875
9.375 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toyohara Kunichika hitsu
豊原国周筆
Artist's seal: toshidama
Publisher: Tsujiokaya Kamekichi
(Marks 549 - seal 24-034)
Carver: Watanabe Hori Ei
Date: 8/1875
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University
Lyon Collection - Toyoshige triptych of Mongaku by a waterfall
Lyon Collection - Kuniyoshi print of Mongaku under a waterfall
Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago In Roger Keyes doctoral dissertation on Yoshitoshi from 1982 he wrote about a print of Kesa Gozen: "Kesa Gozen was the wife of Minamoto Wataru, a courtier who lived at the end of the Heian period. Kesa fell in love with a samurai named Endō Morito, and after the two had consummated their relationship, Endō pressed Kesa to help him kill her husband. Kesa agreed, and it was decided that Endō should kill the man in his sleep. Kesa, however, resolved to take her husband's place, and it was she who was slain in the dark when Morito stole into her husband's chamber. Morito was stricken with remorse, renounced the world, became a priest in the Shingon sect, and spent days performing penance by standing in the icy water of Nachi Waterfall. Eventually, he was rescued by the diety Fudō..."
Later Keyes wrote on page 216 in reference to a vertical triptych by Yoshitosh: "After he accidentally murdered his lover Kesa, the samurai Endō Morito was overcome with remorse, shaved his head, and retired to the mountains to do penance by standing under Nachi Waterfall. It was winter, and after several days his body froze. The god Fudō Myōō, a protector of men, a savior of sinners, and the deity of many waterfalls, was convinced of his devotion and sent his acolytes Kongara and Seitaka to rescue the penitent."
****
Illustrated in color in Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) by Amy Reigle Newland, page 108.
"This print is from a group of six known prints. It portrays the 12th-century figure Endō Moritō doing penance under the Nachi waterfall after he accidentally murders his cousin and lover Kesa Gozen. As atonement he takes the tonsure, aussumes the name Mongaku Shōnin and begins a pilgrimage which includes doing penance under the icy waters of the Nachi falls. Kabuki playwrights later adopted the Mongaku story in [this] piece..."
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)
Tsujiokaya Kamekichi (辻岡屋亀吉) (publisher)
Nakamura Shikan IV (四代目中村芝翫: 7/1860 to January 1899) (actor)
Mongaku Shōnin (文覚上人) (role)