Picture of the Fever of Taira no Kiyomori

Date:: August 1883
Medium:: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 37.5 × 25.4 cm
Source:: Minneapolis Institute of Art

Typical Price

Scarce or exceptional Yoshitoshi composition in fine condition: $1,500–$8,000
Good condition print: $400–$1,500
Later impression or common subject: $200–$600

Description

"Picture of the Fever of Taira no Kiyomori" (August 1883) depicts the dying Taira clan chieftain consumed by the burning fever that accompanied his final illness in 1181—a supernatural heat that the Heike Monogatari describes as so intense that attendants could not approach him and water evaporated before it reached his skin. Yoshitoshi renders the scene of Kiyomori's tormented deathbed with hallucinatory intensity, the fevered visions of the tyrant's deranged mind threatening to overwhelm the boundary between the natural and the supernatural.

More Prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Shunkan Watching Enviously from Kikai Island as Yasuyori Returns to the Capitol after Being Unexpectedly Pardoned (Shunkan sozu Kikaigashima ni oite tamatama Yasuyori no shamen senbo kito no zu)

Looking as if She Wants to Go for a Walk: The Fashion of a Married Woman of the Meiji Era (Yūho ga shitasō, Meiji nenkan saikun no fūzoku), from the series Thirty-two Appearances of Fashion (Fūzoku sanjūni sō)

Slovenly (Shidaranasaso), from the series "Thirty-two Aspects of Women (Fuzoku sanjuniso)"

1888

Color woodblock print; oban

Four PM, from the series "Twenty-Four Hours in Shinbashi and Yanagibashi"

n.d.

Color woodblock print

More Figures Prints

Shamyris, Shôwa period, dated 1965?

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Celebrating the Good Harvest: Felicitations for a Thousand Ages (Nôhônen, Chiyo no kotobuki)

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Midas, Shôwa period, dated 1965?

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Gundari Myôô, Shôwa period, dated 1962

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Featured in Collections

Curated cross-cuts that include this print.

Japanese Ghost and Yōkai Prints

Frequently Asked Questions

Picture of the Fever of Taira no Kiyomori was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) in August 1883.

Picture of the Fever of Taira no Kiyomori depicts figures, mythology, and warriors.

Picture of the Fever of Taira no Kiyomori measures 37.5 × 25.4 cm (Oban format).