Lot Essay
Goke Tadaomi,"Shibata Zeshin", Nihon no bijutsu 93 (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1974), fig. 78
Goke Tadaomi, Shibata Zeshin meihin-shu (Tokyo: Gakken, 1981), color plates 209-210
Schaap, Robert, ed. Meiji - Japanese art in transition (Leiden, 1987), pl. 424, p. 158
Murase, Miyeko, Masterpieces of Japanese Screen Painting (New York: George Braziller, 1990), color plate 33
The story of Watanabe no Tsuna and Ibaraki, the demon of the Rashomon Gate in Kyoto, is a famous legend immortalized as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in several early classics of Japanese literature. Watanabe no Tsuna (953-1024), an historical figure, was the retainer of the warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021). Tsuna, who was assigned the task of slaying the evil demon knownto be haunting the Rashomon Gate, went there one evening as set up a sign reading kinzei (demons prohibited). He sat down to wait but after some hours felt drowsy and fell asleep. Suddenly he felt a grabbing at his helmet and, slashing upwards with his sword, he cut off the arm of the demon which disappeared with a horrible scream. The arm was found to be black with thick, quill-like hairs and claws for fingertips - certain proof of the nature of the encounter. He took the arm home and hid it within his strongbox and began to recite Buddhist sutras. On the sixth day he was visited by an old woman who claimed to have been his wetnurse. Feigning great pride in his exploits, she persuaded him to show her his latest treasure. When he opened the box to show her the arm, she seized it, was immediately transformed into a demon, and flew away.
Zeshin painted several nearly identical versions of this subject. The first was a commission in 1840 for an ema (a wood votive plaque) for the Oji Inari Shinto shrine in Edo. It was very popular and established his position as a leading painter of his period. In the early Meiji era the famous kabuki actor Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1903) visited the shrine and was smitten by Zeshin's demon painting. He commissioned the playwright Mokuami to create a kabuki play based on the theme. The play, entitled Ibaraki, was first performed in 1883 with Kikugoro as the demon and Ichikawa Sadanji as Watanabe no Tsuna. Zeshin was commissioned to paint the demon on a wood panel for the theatre (Goke, Shibata Zeshin meihin-shu, color plate 206). The painting was subsequently donated to the nearby Sensoji temple. Zeshin painted this subject twice in a hanging scroll format (one of the scrolls is in the Jofukuji temple in Kamakura), but the present example is the only folding screen. It is also the most complete description of the legend, featuring not only the demon but the strongbox with its purifying rope and the flickering light of an oil lamp.
Goke Tadaomi, Shibata Zeshin meihin-shu (Tokyo: Gakken, 1981), color plates 209-210
Schaap, Robert, ed. Meiji - Japanese art in transition (Leiden, 1987), pl. 424, p. 158
Murase, Miyeko, Masterpieces of Japanese Screen Painting (New York: George Braziller, 1990), color plate 33
The story of Watanabe no Tsuna and Ibaraki, the demon of the Rashomon Gate in Kyoto, is a famous legend immortalized as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in several early classics of Japanese literature. Watanabe no Tsuna (953-1024), an historical figure, was the retainer of the warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021). Tsuna, who was assigned the task of slaying the evil demon knownto be haunting the Rashomon Gate, went there one evening as set up a sign reading kinzei (demons prohibited). He sat down to wait but after some hours felt drowsy and fell asleep. Suddenly he felt a grabbing at his helmet and, slashing upwards with his sword, he cut off the arm of the demon which disappeared with a horrible scream. The arm was found to be black with thick, quill-like hairs and claws for fingertips - certain proof of the nature of the encounter. He took the arm home and hid it within his strongbox and began to recite Buddhist sutras. On the sixth day he was visited by an old woman who claimed to have been his wetnurse. Feigning great pride in his exploits, she persuaded him to show her his latest treasure. When he opened the box to show her the arm, she seized it, was immediately transformed into a demon, and flew away.
Zeshin painted several nearly identical versions of this subject. The first was a commission in 1840 for an ema (a wood votive plaque) for the Oji Inari Shinto shrine in Edo. It was very popular and established his position as a leading painter of his period. In the early Meiji era the famous kabuki actor Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1903) visited the shrine and was smitten by Zeshin's demon painting. He commissioned the playwright Mokuami to create a kabuki play based on the theme. The play, entitled Ibaraki, was first performed in 1883 with Kikugoro as the demon and Ichikawa Sadanji as Watanabe no Tsuna. Zeshin was commissioned to paint the demon on a wood panel for the theatre (Goke, Shibata Zeshin meihin-shu, color plate 206). The painting was subsequently donated to the nearby Sensoji temple. Zeshin painted this subject twice in a hanging scroll format (one of the scrolls is in the Jofukuji temple in Kamakura), but the present example is the only folding screen. It is also the most complete description of the legend, featuring not only the demon but the strongbox with its purifying rope and the flickering light of an oil lamp.