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Perspective Pictures for The Treasure House of Loyalty
Kitao Masayoshi (Japanese, 1761 - 1824)
c. 1790s
1985.338
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Perspective Picture for the “Treasure House of Loyalty”
Kabuki plays were often inspired by current tragedies. Chushingura, The Tale of the Forty-Seven Masterless Samurai, rocketed to popularity in the early 18th century, Based on a real tragedy, playwrights cast the story in earlier times to avoid government censorship. At court in 1701, Lord Kira provoked Lord Asano, who pulled his sword and attacked his peer, a capital offense. Lord Asano was ordered to commit ritual suicide (seppuku). Twenty-two months later, forty-seven samurai in service to Lord Asano assassinated Lord Kira in a night raid on his estate, taking his head to their master's grave. All the men were sentenced to commit seppuku; they did so in 1703. Recounted in many plays and prints such as the Treasure House of Loyalty, the event riveted the imaginations of actors and audiences.
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Perspective View of the Nakamura Theater
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