第13回日本絵画協会第8回日本美術院連合絵画共進会展に出品し、《橘逸勢女》は銀牌を受賞しました。「孝女」と「孝子」を対として描き、背景には朦朧体(もうろうたい)による空気遠近法を試みています。
橘逸勢は、平安初期の能書家で、三筆の一人に数えられています。延暦23年（804）に遣唐使に随行して空海や最澄らと唐へ渡り、大同元年（806）に帰国しました。承和9年（842）に承和の変の首謀者の一人として罰せられ、伊豆国に流されますが途中の遠江国で病死しました。
《橘逸勢女》では、流罪となった逸勢の跡を追う娘が描かれています。年方画塾での教科書として用いられていた『前賢故実』（菊池容齋編 天保7年～慶応4年（1836～1868）刊）の巻第三に、本図のように父を追う橘逸勢女が載せられており、参照された可能性が考えられます。
日野資朝(すけとも)の子・阿新丸(くまわかまる)は、正中の変により佐渡に流されていた父の処刑が近いことを知り、13歳で佐渡へ赴いて本間山城入道(ほんまやましろにゅうどう)に父との面会を願いましたが、それが許されないままに父は殺されました。
《日野阿新》では、入道の邸に忍び込む、復讐心に燃えた阿新丸の姿が描かれています。
Tachibana no Hayanari no Musume, Hino Kumawaka (1934)
color on silk; hanging scroll
Each 84.8 ×141.5 cm
(First exhibited at the 13th Japan Painting Association and 8th Japan Art Institute Joint Competitive Exhibition)
Tachibana no Hayanari no Musume was awarded the silver medal when it was shown at the 13th Japan Painting Association and 8th Japan Art Institute Joint Competitive Exhibition. The pair of hanging scrolls portray the themes of the filial daughter and the filial son. The aerial perspective in the background is done by using the
mōrōtai technique (without outlines), to create the hazy effect.
Regarded as one of the Three Brushes, the three outstanding calligraphers, Tachibana no Hayanari was a superb calligrapher in the early Heian period. In 804, he traveled with Kūkai and Saichō to China as attendant to the Japanese envoy to China, and returned to Japan in 806. In 842, he was accused of involvement in a dispute over the imperial succession (the Jōwa Incident) and banished to Izu province, but fell ill and died en route, in Tōtōmi province.
Tachibana no Hayanari no Musume depicts the daughter of Hayanari following him into exile. There is a similar image of the daughter of Tachibana no Hayanari following her father in Volume III of
Zenken Kojitsu (illustrated histories of famous persons, edited by Kikuchi Yōsai, published between 1836 and 1868), which was used as a textbook at Toshikata’s painting school. It is possible that Toshikata consulted the image in that book in producing this work.
Kumawakamaru, the son of Hino Suketomo, who had been banished to Sado after the Shōchū disturbance, knew that his father’s execution was near. Aged only thirteen, the boy headed to Sado and asked Honma Yamashiro, the governor of the island, for permission to see his father, but was denied and his father was killed.
Hino Kumawaka depicts the figure of Kumawakamaru, stealing into the governor’s residence, burning with desire for revenge.
