Chapter 40, Minori: Mongaku Doing Penance Beneath the Waterfall. From “Modern Parodies of Genji" - Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) - Japan - Late Edo period

Signed: Chōkarō Yoshiiku ga 朝霞楼芳幾画
Other artist (Insert): Miyagi Gengyo (1817–1880)
Publisher: Ōmiya Kiyūsuke (Sawa Kiyūjiro)
Censor’s seal: Rat 7 Aratame (7th month 1864)

Yoshiiku was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and he studied with Yoshitoshi.

The legend of the famous priest Mongaku is told in the play “Nachi-no-Take Chikai no Mongaku“ (The Priest Mongaku Shonin at the Waterfall of Nachi). Endo Morito (c. 1120–1199), a samurai, became besotted by Kesa Gozen, the beautiful wife of the palace guard Watanabe Wataru. She rejected his persistent demands until one night when she agreed a rendezvous where Morito was to decapitate her husband. To save her honor, she put herself in his place and got killed. Morito, recognising his mistake too late, took holy orders (changing his name to Mongaku) and spent three years enduring the harshest penance, eventually praying beneath the Nachi Falls in the freezing winter for 37 days. At the point of death, he is rescued by Seitaka Dōji (top left) and Kongara Dōji (top right), the two primary boy acolytes of the “Wisdom King“, Fudō Myō-ō.

The text on the above folding page at left may be translated as “Monk Mongaku, when he used the common name Endō Moritō 遠藤盛遠 as a warrior, had a religious awakening. First he was called Sei-ami 盛阿弥, and later lived in the temple Jingo-ji 護寺 in Kyoto. Then he undertook religious ascetic exercise under a waterfall of Nachi. It is considered to be the pinnacle of courageous deeds.”

Size: 35.0 cm x 23.9 cm

Very good impression, fresh colours. White gofun (胡粉, a pigment made of Oyster shells) sprinkled over the lower half of the print. A light horizontal fold in the lower left part. Lower margin trimmed to boundary line, lower right corner cut off. Other margins very slightly soiled. Two tiny pinholes. Unbacked.

Will be sent by registered and insured mail.