"Picture of Mongaku's Penitence" (April 1885) depicts the legendary monk Mongaku undergoing ascetic purification beneath the freezing waterfall of Nachi in Kumano. Mongaku (Endō Morito) had accidentally killed the woman he loved while attempting to murder her husband, and in remorse he undertook years of brutal penance before becoming a powerful Buddhist priest. Yoshitoshi renders the figure of the half-mad penitent beneath the cascading water with the kind of extreme physical drama that distinguished his treatment of religious subjects from conventional devotional imagery.
1888
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Color woodblock print
Picture of Mongaku’s Penitence was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) in April 1885.
Picture of Mongaku’s Penitence depicts figures, waterfalls, and religious.
Picture of Mongaku’s Penitence measures 38.7 × 26 cm (Oban format).
