Female Heroes and Villains in the Prints of Utagawa Kuniyosh

[Bryan Stone]

I'm going to be in Boston this weekend and thought I'd check out the Boston art museum website to see what's going on. As luck would have it there is a show up of Utagawa Kuniyosh prints! The sample of the body of work on display just happens to feature Tomoe Gozen! If my memory serves me correctly she is the person on which Tomoe is based? Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp? ... ubkey=3598

[Stan Sakai]

Yes, that is Tomoe Gozen, all right. "Gozen" is an honorific, such as "sama".

I am curious about that fictional sorceress, Takiyasha. I had never heard of her.

[Ben]

I was wondering about Takiyasha myself. I started to think the writer had confused the name with Himiko, another possible "sorceress", but then I found this little article:

"The young warrior Ôya no Tarô Mitsukuni, a member of the Fujiwara clan, goes on a mission to explore the ruins of the palace of Taira no Masakado, a rebel warrior who was recently defeated and killed. The falling rain leads him to take refuge within the palace and he quickly falls asleep. A mysterious and beautiful woman makes her appearance through the suppon. She is dressed like a courtesan. When Mitsukuni awakes, he finds her close to him. She introduces herself as Kisaragi, a keisei working in Shimabara, Kyôto's pleasures quarter. In a beautiful kudoki, Kisaragi tells Mitsukuni how she fell in love when she first saw him during a hanami party in the hills of Arashiyama. This love at first sight was soon turned into deep sorrow because Mitsukuni did not notice her. The young man is a bit suspicious because a keisei can not freely leave the kuruwa at night. He decides to test her by dancing the final hours of the rebel Taira no Masakado, killed by Tawara no Tôta on the battlefield. Kisaragi can't restrain her tears, revealing her real identity: she is Princess Takiyasha, daughter of Taira no Masakado. Her last efforts to seduce Mitsukuni fail and she lets drop a banner, the battleflag of Masakado. Mitsukuni fully understands the situation and accuses her of being the daughter of the defeated rebel. The woman changes her strategy, trying to persuade the young warrior to break his allegiance to the Fujiwara clan and follow her to start a new large scale rebellion. Mitsukuni refuses and call his soldiers to capture her. In a spectacular tachimawari, Princess Takiyasha has no problem to defeat them using her magical powers. Mitsukuni tries to catch her but she suddenly disappear in curls of smoke. The Princess uses her power to destroy the palace in a spectacular earthquake (yatai kuzushi). Mitsukuni, who can not be defeated by Takiyasha's black magic, emerges alive from the ruins. The Princess appears, on top of a summoned giant toad, unfurling Masakado's battleflag. The two actors poses, defying each other and bringing the dance-drama to an end."

[Bryan Stone]

cool article! I'll be sure to let yall know how the show was...is.