Episode from the story of the Soga brothers (soga monogatari), one of a pair

曽我物語図屏風

With the famed Mount Fuji as backdrop, this pair of screens (B60D5 and B60D6) represents an episode from the story of the Soga brothers. It tells of the circumstances of their father’s death and avengement. According to the story, in 1176 the father was assassinated following a land ownership dispute with Kudo Suketsune, a favorite vassal of the shogun. Surviving many years of hardship in the wake of their father’s death, the brothers were determined to avenge him.

Hearing that Suketsune, their father’s killer, would join the shogun’s grand hunting excursion to Mount Fuji, the brothers concealed themselves in the area and waited for the hunting party to arrive. At the upper right of the right screen, the shogun appears on horseback under a parasol. At the lower left, Soga Juro’s horse is shown tumbling over a fallen tree; when Juro is thrown to the ground, the brothers’ attempt to assassinate Suketsune is for the moment foiled. At the middle of the fifth panel, Suketsune is seen riding a black horse, narrowly escaping Juro in his pursuit.

The left screen depicts the shogun’s camp, where the brothers successfully carried out their revenge. Juro was killed in the fight, and his brother Goro was taken to the shogun’s court and later executed. Written and rewritten over the centuries, the story of the Soga brothers’ successful endeavor and tragic end touched many people’s hearts. Episodes from the story have been the subject of numerous paintings.