Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll, by Totoya Hokkei

An image of Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll. Hokkei, Totoya (Japanese, 1780-1850). Surimono. Colour woodblock print with blind-embossing and metallic pigments. c.1830. Signed: Hokkei. Artist’s seals: Aoi(ga); Oka. Ukiyo-e. Notes: From the series Akabaneren (The Akabane poetry group), seven prints from which are known. The fan-shaped Akabane symbol is seen at the upper right. The prints may have been issued over several years as the styles and subjects differ. This print was probably made for the Year of the Tiger, 1830. Katsura-hime (often confused with Joruri-hime), was daughter of Kiichi Hogen, a military expert entrusted with the keeping of an ancient Chinese treatise on martial strategies known as the Tiger Scroll. In order to gain access to the scroll and its secrets, the famous warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189) posed as a student and serenaded Katsura with his flute. She fell in love with him and eventually succumbed to his request that she bring him the scroll. The cranes on the black kimono were a symbol of longevity found on many surimono.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll. Hokkei, Totoya (Japanese, 1780-1850). Surimono. Colour woodblock print with blind-embossing and metallic pigments. c.1830. Signed: Hokkei. Artist’s seals: Aoi(ga); Oka. Ukiyo-e. Notes: From the series Akabaneren (The Akabane poetry group), seven prints from which are known. The fan-shaped Akabane symbol is seen at the upper right. The prints may have been issued over several years as the styles and subjects differ. This print was probably made for the Year of the Tiger, 1830. Katsura-hime (often confused with Joruri-hime), was daughter of Kiichi Hogen, a military expert entrusted with the keeping of an ancient Chinese treatise on martial strategies known as the Tiger Scroll. In order to gain access to the scroll and its secrets, the famous warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189) posed as a student and serenaded Katsura with his flute. She fell in love with him and eventually succumbed to his request that she bring him the scroll. The cranes on the black kimono were a symbol of longevity found on many surimono.

Image data

Accession Number: P.348-1937
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/19.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1024 pixels
Image width: 911 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 0.96MB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 19/1
Captured: 2018:10:24 15:13:07

Key words

19th Century birds blind embossing colour printing costume crane cranes embossed embossing fans female Fitz_PDP gofun hair hairstyle Japanese karazuri Katsura-hime kimono lady longevity metallic pigment pigment poetry poets print scrolls surimono tiger scroll Totoya Hokkei ukiyo-e verses warriors woman woodblock woodcut

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll, by Totoya Hokkei "
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218453 Accessed: 2024-11-22 20:15:29

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218453
            |title=Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll, by Totoya Hokkei 
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-22 20:15:29|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-218453

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp82/p_348_1937_201810_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Katsura-hime holding the Tiger Scroll, by Totoya Hokkei </figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>