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| Koryusai: Sagi musume - The Heron Maiden |
Here we have one of my personal bijinga favourites, “The Heron Maiden” [Sagi musume], a woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790).
The Heron Maiden is a character in a Japanese folk tale, and often a motive in pictorial art. Briefly, this is the story:
A young man finds a wounded heron, which he takes home and tends until it is healed. When it is, it flies away.
After some time, the man meets a girl, falls in love with her and they get married. They are happy, and to earn a living the wife weaves a precious brocade which the husband sells. But there is one constraint: the man may never watch his wife while she weaves. When he cannot resist to take a look, he sees a heron at work. In front of his eyes, the heron is transformed into his wife. But the spell is broken. When the man has seen her secret, their life together must come to an end and she must leave him. She bids him goodbye, joins a swarm of herons and disappears.
The Heron Maiden is a character in a Japanese folk tale, and often a motive in pictorial art. Briefly, this is the story:
A young man finds a wounded heron, which he takes home and tends until it is healed. When it is, it flies away.
After some time, the man meets a girl, falls in love with her and they get married. They are happy, and to earn a living the wife weaves a precious brocade which the husband sells. But there is one constraint: the man may never watch his wife while she weaves. When he cannot resist to take a look, he sees a heron at work. In front of his eyes, the heron is transformed into his wife. But the spell is broken. When the man has seen her secret, their life together must come to an end and she must leave him. She bids him goodbye, joins a swarm of herons and disappears.