Taira Kiyomori Haunted by Strange Sights

This fourth print is Utagawa Hiroshige’s Taira Kiyomori Haunted by Strange Sights, depicting a scene from the epic The Tale of Heike. The real-life Taira no Kiyomori was a treacherous military leader from the twelfth-century, who showed great cruelty and arrogance throughout most of his life. Although he did become a monk later in his life, depicted here by his head being completely shaved, building grandiose temples in a vain attempt at retribution, he was unable to escape his sins in the end. He began to go insane and hallucinate, and in the winter of 1180, he gazed out onto his snow-covered garden only to see that the rocks and bushes appeared as a myriad of skeletons and skulls–the bones of his victims. The vision refused to disappear and Kiyomori collapsed with a fever, dying in agony after days of suffering.

Unlike the other prints in this collection, this one features no actual ghosts or skeletons–just hallucinations.