Sugawara Michizane Expelled

Sugawara no Michizane — the 9th-century scholar-official and poet who was falsely accused of treason and exiled to Kyushu, where he died of grief before being deified as Tenjin — is depicted here in February 1884 in the moment of his expulsion from the capital. The forced exile of the brilliant minister, borne with dignity, was one of the most morally resonant narratives in Japanese history and a recurring subject of Kabuki theatre and woodblock prints. Kiyochika's 1884 version brings Meiji dramatic illustration technique to a story that had been told continuously since the Heian period.