Utagawa Hiroshige: Taira no Kiyomori's Spectral Vision (1845)

(Metropolitan museum of Art, New York, USA)

A woodblock made by the Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858). Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181) was a powerfull military leader of the Heian period (794-1185) of Japan and leader of the Taira clan. Taira no Kiyomori was a very ambitious who managed to establish the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan trough manipulation and force. This eventually caused his enemies, allies and members of his own clan to turn against him during the Genpei War (1180-1185). Taira no Kiyomori died in 1181 as a result of a high fever leaving his son Munemori to preside over the downfall and destruction of the Taira clan at the hands of the Minamoto clan in 1185. this print shows Taira no Kiyomori, haunted, but uncowed, by his past deeds, surrounded by eerie skull forms in a snowy garden. Woodblock from 1845.