Taira Kiyomori Seeing Skulls in the Snowy Garden

Date:: May 1882
Medium:: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colors on paper
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 36.4 × 73.8 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

"Taira Kiyomori Seeing Skulls in the Snowy Garden" (May 1882) depicts the Heike clan patriarch in a hallucinatory vision of mortality—standing in his garden while skulls rise from the snow around him, manifestations of his guilty conscience and the karmic debt accumulated through his violent rule. The print is one of Yoshitoshi's most psychologically penetrating works of the 1880s, using the supernatural vision as a vehicle for exploring the relationship between power, guilt, and psychological disintegration. The snowy garden setting amplifies the isolation of the tyrant surrounded by his own projected horrors.

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 Snow Scenes Prints

Fair Weather After Snow at Yamato Bridge, Kyoto (Yamato bashi no yukibare), Taishô period, dated 1924

Woodblock print

The Compound of the Tenman Shrine at Kameido in the Snow (Kameido Tenmangu keidai no yuki), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)"

c. 1832/38

Color woodblock print; oban

Miyajima in Snow (Yuki no Miyajima)

Yuki no Miyajima

1929

Color woodblock print; oban

Evening Snow at Shiha Park, Tokyo

1932

Woodblock print

Frequently Asked Questions

Taira Kiyomori Seeing Skulls in the Snowy Garden was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) in May 1882.

Taira Kiyomori Seeing Skulls in the Snowy Garden depicts snow scenes and gardens.

Taira Kiyomori Seeing Skulls in the Snowy Garden measures 36.4 × 73.8 cm (Oban format).