43 Kobayashi Kiyochika 1847 – 1915 Kesa Gozen

Japan, December 1885

This print, number 12 from the series Kyōdō risshi no motoi (Instructive Models of Lofty Ambition), was designed by Kobayashi Kiyochika. The dramatic scene captures the tragic climax where the warrior Endo Morito is about to mistakenly cut off the head of a sleeping figure. Morito had become dangerously infatuated with the beautiful and faithful Kesa Gozen, wife of the palace guard Watanabe Wataru. To protect her husband, Kesa pretended to accept Morito's advances on the condition that he kill Wataru first. That night, she cut off her long hair and took her husband's place in bed in the dark. Morito struck blindly, only to be utterly horrified upon discovering he had murdered the woman he loved. Overcome with remorse, he renounced the world and became the ascetic monk Mongaku. From a collector's standpoint, this print is highly intriguing: it is a redesign of the original issue, likely because the original woodblocks were lost or damaged. However, it retains the series number, publication date, and the descriptive scroll text of the original. Kiyochika contributed 20 prints to this series.