Taira Kiyomori haunted by strange sights (<i>Taira no Kiyomori kai-i o miru zu</i> - 平清盛怪異を見る図)

Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) (artist 1797 – 1858)

Taira Kiyomori haunted by strange sights (Taira no Kiyomori kai-i o miru zu - 平清盛怪異を見る図)

Print


1844 – 1845
29.5 in x 14.46 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Hiroshige ga
Artist's seal: Hiro
Publisher: Ibaya Kyūbei (Marks 126 - seal 21-068)
Censor's seal: Watari
British Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Waseda University - right panel
Waseda University - center panel
Waseda University - left panel
Ashmolean Museum - left panel only
Ashmolean Museum - center panel only
Victoria and Albert Museum
Honolulu Museum of Art - center panel only
Lyon Collection - another copy of the center panel only "TAIRA NO KIYOMORI LOOKING AT SNOW SPECTRES.

Kiyomori stands in the center, glaring at the snow-heaped shapes of trees, bushes, stone-lanterns and mounds in the garden, which appear as skulls and skeletons in menacing attitudes. At the right, one of Kiyomori's attendants cowers. According to the inscription at the top right, Kiyomori, instead of being terrified, glared resolutely back at the spectres until they disappeared. According to tradition, these were the ghosts of the warriors of the Minamoto clan who were slain in the civil wars of the 12th century. The prints are in a very fine state of preservation. Published by Ibakyū, around 1844-45. (Hiroshige's age: 48-49). Full size (triptych)."

Quoted from Tamba, Tsuneo "The Art of Hiroshige" 1965, no 147.

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Hiroshige's diamond-shaped lozenge seal in red below his signature on the left is made up of shapes which read 'hi' and 'ro'.

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Illustrated:

1) In color in Chimi moryō no sekai : Ukiyoe : Edo no gekiga--reikai, makai no shujinkō-tachi (浮世絵魑魅魍魎の世界: 江戶の劇画 : 霊界魔界の主人公たち) by 中右瑛 (Nakau Ei), Ribun Shuppan, Tokyo, 1987, pp. 28-29. There is also another reproduction in black and white on p. 86. [The text is entirely in Japanese.]

2) In color in 浮世絵八華 (Ukiyo-e hakka), vol. 8 (Hiroshige), Heibonsha, 1984, #25.

3) In black and white in Hiroshige: An Exhibition of Selected Prints and Illustrated Books, pp. 68-69.

4) In a full two-page spread in color in Japanese Prints by Catherine David, 2010, Éditions Place des Victoires, pp. 404-405.

5) In small black and white reproductions in the Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Ukiyo-e Prints (3), #s 3187-89.

6) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: British Museum III, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, Kodansha Ltd, 1988, #65, p. 184.

7) in black and white over two pages in Hiroshige: an exhibition of selected prints and illustrated books by Sebastian Izzard, The Ukiyo-e Society of America, 1983, pp. 68-69. Izzard wrote on page 68: "As he was dying, Taira no Kiyomori, the head of the Taira clan and the enemy of the Minamoto clan led by Yoritomo, suffered hallucinations and believed himself haunted by the enemies he had killed during his rise to power. In his madness he saw his snow-covered garden transformed as the skeletons and skulls of the people he had slain. Hiroshige shows him on the verandah of his pavilion, his lover cowering beside him, staring at the strange apparitions. His features are those of the Ōsaka actor Utaemon IV. Utaemon played this role in the play Gempei Soga which was performed in the first month of 1845."

8) The full triptych in color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 4, p. 93, #260.

9) The full triptych in color in Japanese Yōkai and Other Supernatural Beings: Authentic Paintings and Prints of 100 Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Magicians by Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2023, pp. 224-225.
Ibaya Kyūbei (伊場屋久兵衛) (publisher)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Taira no Kiyomori (平清盛) (role)