80. Moon of the filial Son (Koshi no tsuki)

Ono no Takamura (802-852 AD) was a scolar of literature and history who rose to high rank in the Imperial Court of emperor Saga. He is said to have had great respects for his parents. However, Takamura is usually pictured together with a monk who is sitting in flames, a scene from an Orpheus-like adventure in Hell. Stevenson* therefore suggests that Yoshitoshi uses the iconography of a different story in this design. That of the Chinese filial son Ceng Shen (506-437 BC), who sensed that his mother needed him while he was gathering brushwood. (printed in 1889)