Ohara gokou　大原御幸

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. the imperial visit to Ohara. Also written 小原御幸. A pictorial theme related to the pathos-filled journey of the retired Emperor Goshirakawa 後白河 (1127-92; r.1155-58) to the dilapidated mountain retreat of Kenreimon-in 建礼門院 (1155-1213) in Ohara, a mountain village northeast of Kyoto. After the defeat of the Taira 平 clan by the Minamoto 源 in the battle at Dan-no-ura 壇の浦 in 1185, Kenreimon-in, the daughter of Taira no Kiyomori 平清盛 (1118-81) and the mother of the child Emperor Antoku 安徳 (1178-85; r.1180-83) who drowned himself at the end of the battle, became a nun and lived in relative poverty at the lonely Jakkouin 寂光院 in Oohara 大原. A year later, her father-in-law, the former Emperor Goshirakawa, together with a retinue of nearly 20 courtiers and guards made a visit to her decrepit hermitage. The ex-emperor and the nun talked about the good old days and the tragedy of the child emperor. The incident is described at the end of the HEIKE MONOGATARI 平家物語 (The Tale of The Heike) and later formed the basis of the anonymous *nou 能 play OHARA GOKOU. The earliest extant example of the theme is a screen dates from the 16c in a private collection in Tokyo, and a screen by Hasegawa Kyuuzou 長谷川久蔵 (1568-93) in the Tokyo National Museum is also well known.

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*heike-e 平家絵

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