TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI (1839–1892)

This dramatic scene is taken from the Heike Monogatari (Tale of Heike), which tells of the feud between the Minamoto (Genji) and Taira (Heike) clans that was retold many times in plays and illustrations. Here, he places Kiyomori on a veranda looking over the skulls of his enemies.
Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181) was the most powerful military aristocrat in Japan whose family dominated the imperial court. Kiyomori rivaled even the emperor Go-Shirakawa, who would later engineer the downfall of the Taira clan in 1185, four years after Kiyomori's death.