NARUKAMI　鳴神

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

A pictorial theme based on the *kabuki 歌舞伎 play named after its protagonist, the Buddhist priest Narukami. Originally written for actor Ichikawa Danjuurou 市川団十郎 (1660-1704) in 1689. It became one of the Eighteen Great Kabuki plays *Kabuki Juuhachiban 歌舞伎十八番. To seek vengeance on the emperor, Narukami uses his magic powers to imprison a rain-making dragon and cause a drought. The emperor dispatches a beautiful woman to the priest's mountain hermitage to seduce him. While the miscreant priest is asleep, she frees the rain dragon. When he awakens, Narukami is enraged to discover that the woman is gone and that it has started to rain. Narukami was depicted in *yakusha-e 役者絵 by the artists of the Torii school *Toriiha 鳥居派.

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