Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Taira no Koremochi (余吾将軍平維茂) killing Kijo the demon-woman at Togakushi-yama
ca 1827
10 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Uhei
(Marks 232 - seal 21-142)
Censor's seal: kiwame
While hunting Taira no Koremochi came upon a princess and her attendants in the woods at Togakushi Mountain. At their invitation he joined them, and after feasting and drinking fell asleep. In a dream he was warned that the princess was in fact Kijo, a demon, who intended to kill him. Waking, he saw the demon and, drawing his sword, killed it.
ex B. W. Robinson collection (see Robinson Kuniyoshi; The Warrior Prints S1a.18)
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If you look closely at the center of the print at the sleeve of Taira no Koremochi's robe you will notice a large butterfly motif. A small one also appears on the sword hilt held in his right hand. The butterfly was one of the family crests or mons of the Taira clan. This is not just a decoration, but an identifying motif.
Note that the butterfly crest does not appear in all images of Koremochi and the demon woman. Not even all of those composed by Kuniyoshi.
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The text in the cartouche in the upper left reads: 信州戸隠山の紅葉遊覧し妖鬼に會て是を斬る.
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Illustrated in color in Kuniyoshi: Japanese master of imagined worlds by Iwakiri Yuriko with Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 2013, p. 30, pl. 6. "This tale is recounted in the nō play Momojigari (Maple viewing)." Later the entry notes: "The colour of the demon's divided red skirt (hakama) has darkened due to the oxidation of the red lead (entan) pigment."
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Kawaguchiya Uhei (川口屋卯兵衛) (publisher)
Taira no Koremochi (平維茂) (role)