Page 43 - Bonhams Japanese Works of Art September 2015 New York

3053

3054

3054
ANONYMOUS (17TH CENTURY)
Tales of the Taira Family: Nasu no Yoichi and the Fan Target
Large six-panel folding screen, ink, color and metallic pigments on paper applied with gold
leaf; unsigned
66 1/2 x 145 5/8in (169 x 370cm)
$15,000 - 25,000

The pictorial theme Ogi-no-mato (Fan Target) illustrates a particular encounter between the
Minamoto and Taira clans during the Battle of Yashima related in the Heike monogatari (Tales of
the Taira Family) a war chronicle relating events in the late twelfth century.
On the evening of the eighteenth day of the second month of 1185, the Taira forces had a
court lady place a red fan decorated with a gold sun mounted atop the mast of a small boat,
taunting the enemy assembled on the beach. Minimoto Yoshitsune summoned the best archer,
Nasu no Yoichi, to shoot the fan target. He boldly rode into the surf, and with both armies
watching, shot down the fan despite the distance and the rocking motion of the small vessel.

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