"Kogō" and "The Imperial Procession to Ōhara", from The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari)

early 17th century

Not on view

These screens depict two iconic scenes from The Tale of the Heike, a fourteenth-century account of late twelfth-century clashes between the rival Taira and Minamoto clans. The right screen represents the story’s “Kogō” chapter, which centers on Lady Kogō, a renowned beauty and accomplished koto player who finds herself banished after being caught in a love triangle involving Emperor Takakura and the leader of the Taira clan. Here, Minamoto no Nakakuni—the repeated figure wearing a red robe—searches for Lady Kogō on a moonlit night at the behest of the emperor. Following the sound of her koto, a type of zither, he tracks her to a dwelling in the Saga Plain of western Kyoto, pictured at far right. The left screen depicts the elaborate procession of Emperor Go-Shirakawa to Ōhara, in the hills north of Kyoto, in order to visit the former empress Kenreimon’in. Now living in a convent, Kenreimon’in is shown in the third panel from the left, seated on a veranda wearing a white robe.

Artwork Details

平家物語図屏風「小督」「大原御幸」
Title: "Kogō" and "The Imperial Procession to Ōhara", from The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: early 17th century
Culture: Japan
Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold and gold leaf on paper
Dimensions: Image (each): 60 7/8 in. × 11 ft. 9 7/8 in. (154.7 × 360.4 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number: 2015.300.102.1, .2
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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