The rebellion against the emperor failed. Mitsukuni has returned to the ruined palace of Sōma to search for surviving conspirators. Who does he find but the witch-princess Takiyasha, daughter of the warlord Taira No Masakado. For her defense, she summons a tremendous skeleton spectre, and Mitsukuni readies himself for battle.
That’s at least one interpretation of the tryptich up there. It works! It’s serviceably mediocre, like me. But maybe there’s a better interpretation? let’s go on a magical blog journey to find out.
The triptych of Ukiyo-e prints would have been made from three separate woodblocks. The skill of the artist allows one to read it easily as an uninterrupted landscape - but each panel also stands on its own.
In the first panel, Princess Takiyasha looks up from her scroll and out into the next room. Her expression is difficult for me to interpret, but it doesn’t seem like malice - she seems surprised. Framing her in the ragged texture of a broken screen suggests a privacy that has been disrupted by her father’s failure and death. Just outside her room is the hat and makeshift pillow of a traveller.
In the second panel, Takiyasha is eye-to-socket with the skeleton spectre. The skeleton is overwhelming, but it also seems quite still. It’s not a question of the artist’s skill - Kuniyoshi is capable of very dynamic compositions. The real question is who the gentleman in red is. He is not, despite my suggestion, Mitsukuni’s friend or ally. They seem to be at the end of a quick but brief altercation.
The third panel is consumed by the spectacle of the skeleton’s body. Note that behind the skeleton is not the night sky - just an empty darkness. Perhaps such details would only interfere with the details of the skeleton.
Here’s my reading, then, given all that. Mitsukuni, passing near Sōma on his way “somewhere else,” decided to sleep there for the night. He lays down to rest in an unassuming location but before he can fall asleep, Takiyasha enters. She is still living here and sleeping in her old room. She doesn’t see the Samurai just past her ruined blinds; she is reading something. She has let her hair down.
At the sight of this uncontrolled, unprotected woman Mitsuki is posessed by lust. This distracts him from the rebel sneaking up on him, the man in red. Even with the element of surprise, the rebel cannot match Mitsukuni’s skill - but he comes close. He disables his foe without standing or drawing his sword: Takiyasha looks on astonished, the man in red looks up with malice. But Mitsukuni is looking at death. It came close this time, close enough that he is overwhelmed by it. Death has torn open the temporal world, exposing Mitsukuni to the infinite darkness beyond.
or maybe it’s the first reading, what do i know anyways