Sugawara no Michizane in exile on Kyushu — the deified scholar's years of forced residence at Dazaifu before his death in 903 — is depicted in this companion February 1884 nishiki-e to the expulsion scene. The exile subject allowed Kiyochika to render the melancholy contrast between Michizane's dignity in adversity and the bleak landscape of his Kyushu imprisonment, the great scholar surrounded by a provincial setting that was the antithesis of the Heian capital he had served and mourned. The two 1884 prints form a paired narrative of fall and exile.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Sugawara Michizane in Exile was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親) in Feburary 1884.
Sugawara Michizane in Exile depicts landscapes, figures, and mythology.
Sugawara Michizane in Exile measures 36 × 71.4 cm (Oban format).
