Taira No Kiyomori - Taira No Kiyomori in Fiction and Art

Taira No Kiyomori in Fiction and Art

Taira no Kiyomori is the main character in the Kamakura period epic, the Tale of Heike.

Taira no Kiyomori was featured by 19th century woodblock print artists as an exemplar of guilt and retribution, see the accompanying print by Yoshitoshi. The famous print generally known as 'The Vision of Kiyomori' by Utagawa Hiroshige depicts the actor Nakamura Utayemon IV in the character of Kiyomori, confronted by the horrific vision of his snow-filled garden transformed into the heaped bones and skulls of his slaughtered enemies.

In video games, Kiyomori appears in Warriors Orochi 2 fighting for Orochi's army and using prayer beads as weapons. He also makes an appearance in Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, as a boss in one of the game's Crossover Missions. Additionally, he is the main antagonist in Harukanaru Toki no Naka De 3.

Kiyomori also features prominently as a sympathetic villain in Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix series in the first half of the ninth volume, Turbulent Times (retitled as Civil War in English), another Genpei War epic. Like most villains in the series he desires the titular bird for its immortality granting blood, due to his desire to continue to lead and protect the Taira clan and lack of confidence in his successors, but winds up being tricked into buying an imported peacock instead.

The 2012 NHK Taiga drama will be about him.