'Kikuchi Takemitsu' by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1886

'Kikuchi Takemitsu' by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1886. From the series: 'Lessons In The Fundamentals Of Success'. This image is also available on:

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This print depicts Kikuchi Takemitsu, a 14th century general loyal to the Emperor Go-Daigo. He lived during a period in Japanese history known as the Nanboku-chu, the Southern and Northern Courts, a fifty-six year period of civil war that saw Japan split between two rival claimants to the title of Emperor. One, Go-Daigo of the Southern Court, pursuing a full restoration of Imperial power after centuries being puppets of the Shoguns, while the pretenders in the Northern Court were mere servants of the rising Ashikaga clan. Kikuchi fought vigorously to preserve the power Go-Daigo had wrested from the fallen Kamakura Shoguns, and campaigned all across Japan against the Ashikaga who sought to take their place and return the Emperors to the status of honored but impotent figureheads. This scene depicts an exhausted and injured Kikuchi just after his most famous victory at the Battle of the Chikugo River, which was remembered as a particularly bloody battle in a particularly bloody age.

The date and cause of Kikuchi's death aren't certain, but it is known that he kept the Ashikaga on the run for many years; he was in his fifties or sixties when he died and outlived many of his enemies. However, after his death the Southern Court's cause faltered: the successors of Go-Daigo failed and the Ashikaga, with the Northern branch of the Imperial family firmly under control, became sole masters of Japan. Even today, however, Kikuchi's cause isn't entirely forgotten: male-line descendants of the Southern Court's Imperial branch still (potentially) exist, and at the end of WW2 several of them emerged to claim that Emperor Hirohito was illegitimate and the title of Emperor rightfully belonged to them. Their assertion of an unbroken line of descent are regarded as unsubstantiated, and their claim to the throne wasn't and isn't taken seriously in Japan.

The fact that the current imperial line are descendants of the Northern pretenders that Kikuchi fought against was evidently not considered important in Kobayashi Kiyochika's time, because here Kikuchi is held up as a moral lesson for the conscientious 19th century Japanese citizen. Kiyochika's era was in many ways even more volatile than Kikuchi's: the Emperor Meiji had been restored as active head of state after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1860s, and Japan was opening up to the West and modernizing rapidly. Kikuchi was not a random choice for Kiyochika's series 'Lessons In The Fundamentals Of Success': in the Meiji era, it was once again politic to find moral examples in samurai who had been loyal to the Emperor, rather than the majority who had served the Shoguns.

Product Details: 

Classic unisex pullover hoodie with pouch, printed on front, available in five different colors.

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Available colors: black, white, gray, blue, navy blue

- Air jet yarn gives softer feel and reduced pilling
- Double-lined hood with color-matched drawcord
- Tear away label
- Double-needle stitching at shoulder, armhole, neck, waistband and cuffs
- Pouch pocket
- 1 x 1 rib with spandex
- Quarter-turned to eliminate centre crease

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