Shizuka’s dance
by Ogata Gekko
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Description
Shizuka's dance—the performance of the white dancer Shizuka Gozen before Minamoto no Yoritomo at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura, where she sang songs praising her lover Yoshitsune (Yoritomo's brother and enemy)—was among Japanese history's most defiant acts of artistic loyalty. The scene of the dancer performing her own agenda under the hostile gaze of power gave Gekko a subject of contained theatrical drama, the dance itself an assertion of feeling against political pressure.
More Prints by Ogata Gekko
MORNING GLORIES AT IRIYA, TOKYO
Woodblock print
Nippon-damashii, Kyokaku 日本魂 侠客 / Gekko zuihitsu 月耕随筆
Woodblock print
Onodera Koemon Hidetomi 小野寺幸右衛門秀富 / Gishi shijushichi zu 義士四十七図
Woodblock print
Beauties Harvesting Bracken, from the series Gekkō’s Miscellaney
c. 1886–1899
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
More Music Prints
Frequently Asked Questions
Shizuka’s dance was created by Ogata Gekko (尾形月耕).
Shizuka’s dance depicts music.