Minamoto no Yorimasa Aiming an Arrow
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This painting shows the most famous tale about Minamoto no Yorimasa who recounts his slaying of the mythical nue, a monster reputed to have a head like a monkey, limbs like a tiger, and tail like a snake. Recorded in the fourteenth-century war epic The Tale of the Heike, the story relates that the emperor, sickened by the nue’s wailing night after night in a ghostly voice echoing from dense black clouds that blotted out the sky, begged Yorimasa to rid him of this monster.
Hokusai has painted Yorimasa with his bow fully drawn, his body braced in battle stance, and his gaze fully concentrated on firing the single arrow that will kill his enemy. Hokusai only intimates its menace through the sinister black clouds that swirl around Yorimasa and the two flashes of red lightning that descend to threaten him.
Hokusai has painted Yorimasa with his bow fully drawn, his body braced in battle stance, and his gaze fully concentrated on firing the single arrow that will kill his enemy. Hokusai only intimates its menace through the sinister black clouds that swirl around Yorimasa and the two flashes of red lightning that descend to threaten him.
Artwork Details
- 源頼政の鵺退治図
- Title: Minamoto no Yorimasa Aiming an Arrow
- Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo))
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: ca. 1847–49
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 39 in. × 16 5/8 in. (99 × 42.2 cm)
Overall with mounting: 75 9/16 × 21 15/16 in. (192 × 55.8 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by Feinberg Collection
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art