Tokiwa Gozen Escaping with Her Three Children

Category

Library Item

Item no

18837

Title

Tokiwa Gozen Escaping with Her Three Children

Artist / maker

Takahashi, Haran

Date

1855

Size

30.5 x 36.5cm

Type

Ink and colour; Mixed media

Location

Art and Design Library

Tokiwa Gozen (1118-80) was a noblewoman and mother of three sons by the high-ranking warrior Minamoto no Yoshitomo. After the defeat of the Minamoto clan in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160, she was forced to flee with her three young children in the depths of winter. As members of the disgraced Minamoto clan, they were refused entry everywhere they went. In paintings, Tokiwa is presented as a model of fortitude, leading and sheltering her children through the snow.

From the album Open Eyes and a Radiant Heart (Katsumoku roshin).

This album contains 106 works, alternating between calligraphy and painting, by a diverse range of artists, apparently working in Edo (modern-day Tokyo). The painting subjects are dominated by landscapes, birds and flowers, with a small number of figurative works. The calligraphy pieces are done in both Chinese characters and native Japanese kana, and are typically brushed on richly decorated papers. Many of the works date from the 1850s, but the last twenty or so pages of the album were left unfilled.
Information provided by Dr Rosina Buckland (National Museum of Scotland) and Dr Takahashi Toshiro (Daito Bunka University, Tokyo)

This album was donated to Edinburgh City Libraries by Marie Ferguson Dyer in honour of her father Henry Dyer. Dyer was a Scottish engineer who became the first Principal of the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo in 1872.

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