TUKIOKA Yoshitoshi

This work is a snapshot of a scene from Volume 7 of the Tale of the Heike, "Pilgrimage to Chikubushima."Taira Tsunemasa, seated in the center of the painting, has removed his gloves and can be seen carefully playing the biwa.The scene in this work is when Taira no Tsunemasa, a master of the biwa, visits Chikubushima Island in Lake Biwa to pray for victory while pursuing and killing Minamoto no Yoshinaka, and recites sutras in front of Benzaiten.There, he is offering a secret song on a biwa that was handed to the resident monks who had heard rumors about Tsunemasa.After the performance of the secret song, the palace fell silent, and it is said that Benzaiten was so moved that she manifested herself, and a white dragon appeared on Tsunemasa's sleeve.