Of all the great heroes of Japan’s feudal past, Minamoto no Yoshitsune is probably the most famous. This doll represents his lover, Shizuka Gozen.
Yoshitsune was the handsome, brilliant general whose military victories overturned the aristocracy and ushered in the era of the samurai known as the Kamakua period (1185-1333). Shizuka was a lowly temple dancer, like her mother. But what a dancer! During a terrible drought, the emperor ordered 100 Buddhist monks to pray for rain. They failed. But when Shizuka danced, the heavens opened with a life-giving downpour. She was an angel (tenyo) beloved by Buddha.
Yoshitsune and Shizuka fell in love but could not marry because of the difference in their status. Eventually, Yoshitsune’s brother, Minamoto no Yoritomo, decided his brother had become dangerous and decided to crush him. He killed Yoshitsune and took Shizuka prisoner.
This doll shows one of the most famous scenes in Japanese history and legend. Yoritomo has captured Shizuka and ordered the famous dancer to perform for him at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura. But notice: instead of performing a court dance dressed as a woman, she is dressed as a man. She is playing none other than her murdered lover, Yoshitsune himself, and singing his praises.
There are several versions of what happens next. Did Yoritomo kill her immediately? Did she become a nun to forestall him taking her as a lover? Did she become a nun after an unsuccessful suicide attempt? Most stories agree that she had Yoshitsune’s baby which Yoritomo murdered. All versions are tragic, and all end with her death.
But here, as we see her dancing, she is one with her lover. The powers of this world will never separate Shizuka and Yoshitsune now, in death or in legend.
Weight: 1 pound; Height: 11 inches |
