Yoshitsune 3

#yoshitsune #ukiyo-e #japaneseprints

one more Yoshitsune print ! This is by #Yoshitoshi and shows the famous fight between #Benkei and a very young Yoshitsune at Gojo Bridge in Kyoto.

Given that Benkei was suppoe to be a warrior monk and Yoshitsune exiled to a temple this is probably not the clothes they may have actually worn. This is what a 19th century artist believed a Heian warrior monk and a young male aristocrat would have worn. Most of the detail may be fairly accurate though given depictions in scrolls with earlier dating.

Yoshitoshi has definitely gone for the beautiful boy look and it is a consistent theme used in other prints that Benkei is shown as very macho in contrast to Yoshitsune.

Yoshitsune as an Ideal of male beauty - Two

#yoshitsune regardless of however he actually looked like was idealised by later generations 

This is an actor playing him as a character in a #kabuki play in a very elegant costume. I think that the actor is wearing a wig meant to imply this is Yoshistsune as a young man as the hair is down and long BUT possibly yoshitsune as an older man semi retired. I am not sure which play this is from?

Note the aristocratic elegance and how #Kunisada saw late Heian era costume as depicted on stage.

Yoshitsune as an Ideal of male beauty _ One

#japaneseprints #ukiyo-e 

#yoshitsune is often depicted as an ideal of male beauty and often by contrasting him as a youth to #Benkei as in this #kiyonaga print