Yoshitoshi, Kiyomori’s Fever Dream, 1883
“In Yoshitoshi’s print, Nii-dono and her son kneel in prayer while Kiyomori writhes in a fit of madness. Behind him emerges a demonic dreamscape of hell, presided over by the merciless Emma-ō in the center. Deceased souls of Kiyomori’s victims drift into view along with fiendish ogres and other denizens of the netherworld. Yoshitoshi emphasizes the hallucinatory intensity of the fever-dream with an unusual yellow, green, and violet color scheme instead of the more typical flame orange and red.”— printsofjapan.wordpress.com
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Kiyomori’s Fever Dream detail
Shortly after Yoshitoshi’s death, a monument to his memory was erected in Tokyo and inscribed with his death poem:
holding back the night
with its increasing brilliance
the summer moon
Yoshitoshi Moon Images, Haikus, stories
Yoshitoshi’s 100 Aspects of the Moon, 1885
Six renditions of the woodblocks, accompanied by my haiku commentaries on their moods and factual notes on the stories
Click on the picture above to go to the first image in the series
