A View on Honnouji
22/11/13 21:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daeva_neesanYesterday Babi linked me another manga about Nobunaga, this time inspired to the popular videogame Nobunaga no Yabou, released in English to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the game... It was a wonderful gift T_T;
So I guess that I can finally entertain you with this post about the depictions of the Incident of Honnoji from Japanese prints :D
First, a little introduction.
Contrary to popular belief, ukiyo-e prints back in the days were not considered-- "Art" as we do now.
It mostly had an entertaining flavour, even if artists were definitely keen on showing off their skills-- You may compare them to modern comics.
When considering artworks depicting historical facts or figures, you must also think that the most of these depictions were not results of actual historical studies, they were mostly based on how that fact was depicted or interpreted by a popular kabuki play-- So you find inaccuracies, or mere interpretations out of the artist's fantasy.
Nonetheless, I'm intrigued and charmed by these illustrations, so I decided to show you various interpretations of the same fact, and hopefully let you see how the episode changes in its narration depending on the period the piece was produced or the artist's intention.
So, this piece is dated around 1835 and if you find it around it's usually called "Nobunaga and Ranmaru protecting Honnoji Temple", or even "Nobunaga and Yoshitsune at Honnoji Temple"... The guys portrayed in this picture and indeed Nobunaga and Ranmaru, but-- They are not.
This print is part of a triptych by Kuniyoshi which theme was Ise no Kami Yoshitsune and his retainer Kumai Tarô defending Horikawa Palace from the attack of Tosa-bô Shôshun. It's a scene from the tale of Heike.
You must know that at the time there was some Tokugawa censorship going on that forbid the rappresentation of samurai living after 1570.
It was part of the Tenpo reforms as an attempt to repress protests and inspire simplicity and frugality in everyday life.
Because of this ban, artists depicted characters from old tales to refer to other situations (present or past) without being explicit.
It's, to give you a Western idea about it, like what happened in Italy during Risorgimento or in France after the Restauration, were medieval, old stories were depicted to refer to current situations of oppressions to suggest the legitimacy of rebellion.
So, here you have Yoshitsune and Taro, with tags calling them Yoshitsune and Taro, but you know that it's actually Nobunaga and Ranmaru. How is it so?
Obviously, because of their clothes: Taro is wearing a kimono sporting the mon of Mori family, Yoshitsune's hakama have a pattern similar to Oda's mon. Also, you can see the Oda mon decorating the curtain behind Yoshitsune.
Also, Yoshitsune's swords were famous items belonging to Nobunaga.
So people looked at this picture and knew that it was referring to the Honnoji incident, even if it's actually depicting a scene dated centuries before.
Unfortunately we only have a part of the triptych, so we can't tell what the artist wanted to suggest us, but we can say that both Nob--Aehm, Yoshitsune and Taro look pretty dignified despite the dangerous situation... I'm expecially in love with this Ran--Aehm, Taro, here. Protecting his lord bravely with his young body... *whimpers ♥*
In this second print, you can see a scene blatantly based on a kabuki play which title seems to be Oda no Yuki Mitsugi no Tamamono.
In this series of prints you can see a different kind of censorship, concerning the tenpo reform as above: here, as in many kabuki plays of the time, the characters are called with different names, but you can still get a hint of their identity.
In this peculiar pic, Nobunaga is Oda (written with different kanji) Harunaga and Mitsuhide is called Takechi Mitsuhide. This was an escamotage to treat historical figures as imaginary ones and still talk about them and their inspiring adventures unpunished.
I said that this picture is based on a play, and it's easy to tell, 'cause here the focus is not the event or the historical characters, but the actors playing those roles.
Ukiyo-e were particularly popular to sell as postcards of popular actors, who were usually portrayed in the roles they played, as you can see here. --All in all, it's not very different from what happens now.
I find Nobunaga's representation quite dramatic and inspiring-- Fighting with his all in his disheveled clothes, his body pierced by arrows--
The third pic introduces a new character that we'll see regularly from now on.
This artwork is by Yoshitoshi and it's dated 1864.
The "new character" introduced in this picture is Yasuda Sakubei, and you can see him as Nobunaga's opponent.
In many descriptions that you'll find around, he's referred to as Mitsuhide, but we all know that Mitsuhide never attacked directly Nobunaga, as shown in the previous print.
I got to know about Sakubei because of these prints and I investigated. His figure became popular because of various kabuki plays where he has an active role in Nobunaga's death, in fact traditionally he's the guy that stabbed him with a spear, wounding him fatally and forcing him to seppuku.
As the story goes, he's always portrayed with Ranmaru running after him. Ranmaru would wound him severely, keeping him KO for quite a while.
It's intriguing to know that Sakubei would die in 1597 of illness, on the same day of Nobunaga's death, implying a curse from our favourite warlord. ...Or so people like to think!
Since I'm sure I piqued your curiosity, so here's another print about Ranmaru taking care of this guy:
Speaking of Ran's heroic feats, here's a curious print that I'd like to share, even if it's relatively out of context:
This print is interesting because here you can see Ranmaru facing Mitsuhide directly, while, on extreme left, you can spot Nobunaga hiding inside the temple, a mere scaredy silhouette.
Here's another rappresentation of the same scene as in the third pic, this time dated 1872, by Yoshitoshi Taiso.
Look at how Nobunaga's face is rendered realistically and how dynamic the composition is despite its simplicity and the minimal background.
You can spot that in this picture the samurai's names are finally spelled correctly.
In this print on a single sheet, dated 1878 and released by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, you can finally have an example of historical divulgation.
This print is part of a collection dedicated to the lives of 51 famous generals.
On the top-right you can see a little biography of Nobunaga, telling his deeds.
If the print before focused on Nobunaga, here are Ranmaru and Sakubei.
Instead of Nobunaga's death, here the author decides to focus on the "secondary" characters, thus portraying Sakubei as the protagonist of this piece.
The colors are quite subdued but suggestive. on the left you can see the flames "getting in" from above and a screen depicting a mysterious scene with a sheperd and a sheep, probably a reference to Nobunaga's vain tastes for western culture.
This print of Fugawa Kiyu dated 1884, shows us Ranmaru determined to save his lord and his lord determined to survive, choosing to jump in the fire instead of facing Sakubei.
I found this bit about the konpeito in another solo print of Sakubei:
--But let's go back to our jumping Nobu.
Here's another depiction of the same scene by Chikanobu, dated 1906.
Instead of facing death by the hands of a mere spearman, he decides to jump in the fire, apparently facing a stronger tragedy, in fact searching for escape. Note the bit of Nobunaga's ripped clothes in Sakubei's hand, as to suggest that Nobunaga actually escaped a strong offence.
It makes you think about Mitsuhide's destiny, and how it was ridiculous compared to Nobunaga's will to save himself.
Now, for the sake of par condicio, I'll focus on the not-so-cool portraits of Nobunaga.
The first one is this other piece of Ginko, dated 1898.
I love his refined, flowery lines.
Here you have a Nobu blatantly running away from Sakubei. Note the difference with the previous renditions: here he's not jumping in a fire, here he's languidly running towards the opposite direction, suggesting the idea of gutless decadence.
Again, here we have Sakubei as the hero of the day, as Nobunaga is hiding in his room, terrified as he spies his pages facing Mitsuhide's army. Despite the pavid position, it's worth noting that Nobunaga is holding a bow.
---Mmmh, what? Yeah, I found only two pictures of this kind :P !
And that's all for a long, time-consuming post that I hope you enjoyed x'D
I look forward to know which is your favourite print of the bunch :D !
So I guess that I can finally entertain you with this post about the depictions of the Incident of Honnoji from Japanese prints :D
First, a little introduction.
Contrary to popular belief, ukiyo-e prints back in the days were not considered-- "Art" as we do now.
It mostly had an entertaining flavour, even if artists were definitely keen on showing off their skills-- You may compare them to modern comics.
When considering artworks depicting historical facts or figures, you must also think that the most of these depictions were not results of actual historical studies, they were mostly based on how that fact was depicted or interpreted by a popular kabuki play-- So you find inaccuracies, or mere interpretations out of the artist's fantasy.
Nonetheless, I'm intrigued and charmed by these illustrations, so I decided to show you various interpretations of the same fact, and hopefully let you see how the episode changes in its narration depending on the period the piece was produced or the artist's intention.
So, this piece is dated around 1835 and if you find it around it's usually called "Nobunaga and Ranmaru protecting Honnoji Temple", or even "Nobunaga and Yoshitsune at Honnoji Temple"... The guys portrayed in this picture and indeed Nobunaga and Ranmaru, but-- They are not.
This print is part of a triptych by Kuniyoshi which theme was Ise no Kami Yoshitsune and his retainer Kumai Tarô defending Horikawa Palace from the attack of Tosa-bô Shôshun. It's a scene from the tale of Heike.
You must know that at the time there was some Tokugawa censorship going on that forbid the rappresentation of samurai living after 1570.
It was part of the Tenpo reforms as an attempt to repress protests and inspire simplicity and frugality in everyday life.
Because of this ban, artists depicted characters from old tales to refer to other situations (present or past) without being explicit.
It's, to give you a Western idea about it, like what happened in Italy during Risorgimento or in France after the Restauration, were medieval, old stories were depicted to refer to current situations of oppressions to suggest the legitimacy of rebellion.
So, here you have Yoshitsune and Taro, with tags calling them Yoshitsune and Taro, but you know that it's actually Nobunaga and Ranmaru. How is it so?
Obviously, because of their clothes: Taro is wearing a kimono sporting the mon of Mori family, Yoshitsune's hakama have a pattern similar to Oda's mon. Also, you can see the Oda mon decorating the curtain behind Yoshitsune.
Also, Yoshitsune's swords were famous items belonging to Nobunaga.
So people looked at this picture and knew that it was referring to the Honnoji incident, even if it's actually depicting a scene dated centuries before.
Unfortunately we only have a part of the triptych, so we can't tell what the artist wanted to suggest us, but we can say that both Nob--Aehm, Yoshitsune and Taro look pretty dignified despite the dangerous situation... I'm expecially in love with this Ran--Aehm, Taro, here. Protecting his lord bravely with his young body... *whimpers ♥*
In this second print, you can see a scene blatantly based on a kabuki play which title seems to be Oda no Yuki Mitsugi no Tamamono.
In this series of prints you can see a different kind of censorship, concerning the tenpo reform as above: here, as in many kabuki plays of the time, the characters are called with different names, but you can still get a hint of their identity.
In this peculiar pic, Nobunaga is Oda (written with different kanji) Harunaga and Mitsuhide is called Takechi Mitsuhide. This was an escamotage to treat historical figures as imaginary ones and still talk about them and their inspiring adventures unpunished.
I said that this picture is based on a play, and it's easy to tell, 'cause here the focus is not the event or the historical characters, but the actors playing those roles.
Ukiyo-e were particularly popular to sell as postcards of popular actors, who were usually portrayed in the roles they played, as you can see here. --All in all, it's not very different from what happens now.
I find Nobunaga's representation quite dramatic and inspiring-- Fighting with his all in his disheveled clothes, his body pierced by arrows--
The third pic introduces a new character that we'll see regularly from now on.
This artwork is by Yoshitoshi and it's dated 1864.
The "new character" introduced in this picture is Yasuda Sakubei, and you can see him as Nobunaga's opponent.
In many descriptions that you'll find around, he's referred to as Mitsuhide, but we all know that Mitsuhide never attacked directly Nobunaga, as shown in the previous print.
I got to know about Sakubei because of these prints and I investigated. His figure became popular because of various kabuki plays where he has an active role in Nobunaga's death, in fact traditionally he's the guy that stabbed him with a spear, wounding him fatally and forcing him to seppuku.
As the story goes, he's always portrayed with Ranmaru running after him. Ranmaru would wound him severely, keeping him KO for quite a while.
It's intriguing to know that Sakubei would die in 1597 of illness, on the same day of Nobunaga's death, implying a curse from our favourite warlord. ...Or so people like to think!
Since I'm sure I piqued your curiosity, so here's another print about Ranmaru taking care of this guy:
Speaking of Ran's heroic feats, here's a curious print that I'd like to share, even if it's relatively out of context:
This print is interesting because here you can see Ranmaru facing Mitsuhide directly, while, on extreme left, you can spot Nobunaga hiding inside the temple, a mere scaredy silhouette.
Here's another rappresentation of the same scene as in the third pic, this time dated 1872, by Yoshitoshi Taiso.
Look at how Nobunaga's face is rendered realistically and how dynamic the composition is despite its simplicity and the minimal background.
You can spot that in this picture the samurai's names are finally spelled correctly.
In this print on a single sheet, dated 1878 and released by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, you can finally have an example of historical divulgation.
This print is part of a collection dedicated to the lives of 51 famous generals.
On the top-right you can see a little biography of Nobunaga, telling his deeds.
If the print before focused on Nobunaga, here are Ranmaru and Sakubei.
Instead of Nobunaga's death, here the author decides to focus on the "secondary" characters, thus portraying Sakubei as the protagonist of this piece.
The colors are quite subdued but suggestive. on the left you can see the flames "getting in" from above and a screen depicting a mysterious scene with a sheperd and a sheep, probably a reference to Nobunaga's vain tastes for western culture.
This print of Fugawa Kiyu dated 1884, shows us Ranmaru determined to save his lord and his lord determined to survive, choosing to jump in the fire instead of facing Sakubei.
I found this bit about the konpeito in another solo print of Sakubei:
--But let's go back to our jumping Nobu.
Here's another depiction of the same scene by Chikanobu, dated 1906.
Instead of facing death by the hands of a mere spearman, he decides to jump in the fire, apparently facing a stronger tragedy, in fact searching for escape. Note the bit of Nobunaga's ripped clothes in Sakubei's hand, as to suggest that Nobunaga actually escaped a strong offence.
It makes you think about Mitsuhide's destiny, and how it was ridiculous compared to Nobunaga's will to save himself.
Now, for the sake of par condicio, I'll focus on the not-so-cool portraits of Nobunaga.
The first one is this other piece of Ginko, dated 1898.
I love his refined, flowery lines.
Here you have a Nobu blatantly running away from Sakubei. Note the difference with the previous renditions: here he's not jumping in a fire, here he's languidly running towards the opposite direction, suggesting the idea of gutless decadence.
Again, here we have Sakubei as the hero of the day, as Nobunaga is hiding in his room, terrified as he spies his pages facing Mitsuhide's army. Despite the pavid position, it's worth noting that Nobunaga is holding a bow.
---Mmmh, what? Yeah, I found only two pictures of this kind :P !
And that's all for a long, time-consuming post that I hope you enjoyed x'D
I look forward to know which is your favourite print of the bunch :D !
Beautiful!
Date: 23/11/13 22:51 (UTC)I love Kuniyoshi's style. The Oda no Yuki Mitsugi no Tamamono piece is my favorite among those you posted. The intense picture of Ranmaru is also breathtaking.
I came to dislike Sakubei at the end of this post. How dare he break that beautiful biwa! (LOL)
Barbara
no subject
Date: 24/11/13 14:09 (UTC)I love Kuniyoshi's style too! Probably when we think about ukiyo-e of this kind, the first coming to our mind are his..!
Such vivid colours :3 ..!
The Nobu in that Tamamono pic surely is not Nobu XD But it's a really interesting rendition, isn't it :DDD ? He looks so wild∼
It's fun how looking at ukiyo-e made me know about this Sakubei XD He's never mentioned anywhere else, also the Shinchokoki said nothing about him, but here you go, he got quite popular in kabuki plays, apparently XD
I think that he's a fitting subordinate for Mitsuhide, LOL.
...All those cute konpeito ;_; ...
(it made me think of some scenes in Sengoku Basara where Nobunaga "paid" Ranmaru with them for his deeds x'DDDD)
no subject
Date: 1/12/13 15:58 (UTC)Do you have links to the info sources, by the way? I like to compile a database, just in case I need to use these stuff later.
no subject
Date: 2/12/13 09:07 (UTC)Anyway, about the info sources, besides Wikipedia for hints on Tenpo, most about the censorship comes from the Italian blog of a Japanese girl who lives in Italy and shares unknown stuff about her culture for the joys of us otaku...
I don't know how much you could use them, but here you go:
pt. 1 -> http://grandebanzai.blogspot.it/2011/06/i-samurai-disegnati-in-ukiyoe.html
pt.2 -> http://grandebanzai.blogspot.it/2011/06/i-samurai-disegnati-in-ukiyoe-la-parte.html
pt.3 -> http://grandebanzai.blogspot.it/2011/06/i-samurai-disegnati-in-ukiyoe-la-terza.html
The most of the posts is her talking about the lives of the samurai portrayed in the ukiyo-e, but here and there she also shares infos about the consorship and how the atists evaded it.
For further infos about each print, it's mostly my considerations, given my knowledge on the issue.
It's worthless linking the sources, but you can easily find them on google, just type "Honnoji" the name of the artist and the date.
The only one worth a mention is the description of Chikanobu's print: http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cyw/id/252
From this description I got the idea of the "leap for life" into the flames, something that was out of my reach, culturally speaking :3