Yamashiro, flowers of Kinkaku-ji, Princess Yuki.

The beautiful Princess Yuki, daughter of a famous artist, has been tied to a flowering cherry tree in the garden of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. With her toes, she draws a picture of a mouse using the flower petals at her feet. The mouse comes to life, and multiplies, and the mice then chew through the ropes that bind her. From the series Snow, Moon And Flowers Publisher Kobayashi Tetsujiro PLAY TITLE Gion Sairei Shink�ki The play was set in Kinkakuji, (Golden Pavilion) in Ky�to. The occupant of the pavilion was the evil Daizen, who had recently killed the shogun and captured the shogun’s mother, keeping her captive on the upper floor of Kinkakuji. Although it is wartime, Daizen lives in luxury, indulging in his favorite pastime, playing the board game Go. A man named T�kichi appears, wanting to switch sides and work for Daizen as a war strategist. Daizen is suspicious, but wants his skill, and so decides to test him by challenging him to a game of go. After a battle of wits, Daizen is shocked to discover he has been beaten. He next tests T�kichi’s strategic ability by throwing down a well the bowl used to hold the go pieces, and tells him to retrieve it without getting his hands wet. To achieve this, T�kichi diverts water from the nearby waterfall through a pipe and into the well, so that the bowl floats to the surface. He presents it to Daizen on the upturned Go board and promises to present Daizen with his enemy’s head in the same way, a sentiment which well pleases Daizen. In the meantime, Daizen has been trying to force Princess Yuki to paint a dragon on the ceiling of the pavilion, and to give in to his favors. She has persistently refused, giving several reasons–he is the man who killed the shogun to whom she and her husband owed their loyalty she doesn’t have the secret scroll of a tiger painted by her grandfather from which to copy she loves her husband and cannot betray him. Daizen responds that if it is her love for her husband that is stopping her, then he will have him hung in a well and then torture her in his bed. She tries to kill him with his sword, but fails and as punishment, he orders her husband’s death and has her tied to the cherry tree in the garden. Her husband is led in past her, and then alone in desperation as the cherry blossom falls plentifully around her on the ground, she draws a picture of some mice with her toes. They come to life and gnaw away the ropes binding her, but before she can escape, Daizen’s brother spots her, but is felled with a dagger thrown by an unseen assailant. The rescuer is none other than T�kichi, now in his true identity as Hisanoshi, one of Nobunaga’s great warriors, who had planned all along to rescue the shogun’s mother and defeat Daizen. The play ends with the warriors posed to meet one final time for battle. Chikanobu Toyohara 1838-1912 Toyohara Chikanobu was born Hashimoto Naoyoshi, studied under Toyohara Kunichika and changed his name to reflect tradition to was Hashimoto. He usually signed his artwork &quotYosh&amp#363 Chikanobu&quot. He was one of the most famous masters of bijin-ga.