72 Inoue Yasuji 1864 – 1889 Akazome Emon

from the series Kyōdō risshi no moto (“Instructive Models of Lofty Ambition”)
publisher: Matsuki Heikichi

From the moral and educational series Kyōdō risshi no moto, this print depicts the poetess Akazome Emon (956–1041) leaving Sumiyoshi Shrine after offering her life in exchange for the recovery of her ill son, Ōe no Takachika.
According to the Konjaku Monogatarishū (“Anthology of Tales from the Past”), she dedicated a sacred staff inscribed with a poem that read:

The life I pray
Be taken in place of his,
I do not begrudge;
But the parting
Is so bitter.

That night, she dreamt of a white-haired old man who accepted the poem, and her son miraculously recovered.

Inoue Yasuji (also known as Tankei), the only true pupil of Kobayashi Kiyochika, continued his master’s innovative blend of traditional ukiyo-e design with Western notions of light and shadow.
This print exemplifies his lyrical sensibility and quiet moral intensity, merging narrative depth with elegant pictorial restraint.