Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/170



uring part of the 14th Century there were two rival Emperors in Japan, one of whom was backed by the powerful Ashikaga family under Ashikaga Takauji. The other Emperor had among his partisans the Nitta clan, and after their leader Nitta Yoshisada had been killed, the remainder of the army that he had commanded was led by his son Nitta Yoshioki. In the play by Hiraga Gennai entitled the pertinent episodes of Yoshioki’s career are given somewhat as follows.

When he had become head of the house and was preparing to leave his fief and go out to the war he entrusted his castle, his wife, and his child to the guardianship of a faithful retainer named Yura Hyōgonosuke, and he ordered a younger brother, Yoshimine, who was to remain in attendance on the Emperor, to take special care of two famous arrows that were among the most prized and most coveted heirlooms of the Nitta family.