Ebira(quiver)/Noh Art #035 by eisui6226 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This is the spirit of Kajiwara Genda Kagesue from the Noh play "Ebira".
I painted this scene from the last part of the play, in which he dances with a fan and a sword.

"Ebira" is a tool used by warriors in the past to store arrows, like a quiver of arrows.

According to "Genpei Seisui-ki," during the Battle of Ichinotani, Kagesue fought valiantly with a "plum branch" in his quiver, and was praised by both allies and enemies alike as a warrior from the Bando region who understood the elegance of the Japanese warrior.
The plums in the quiver and the Ikuta Forest still remain in the precincts of Ikuta Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture, and have long been cherished.

In the background are clouds, the crest of an arrow wheel and a plum tree, as Kajiwara Kagesue was an expert archer.

Synopsis.

On his way to the capital, a monk from the western part of Japan visits the Ikuta Forest.
While the monk is admiring the plum trees in full bloom there, a man passes by.
When the monk asks the man the name of the plum tree, the man replies that it is "a plum tree in his quiver.
Long ago, there was a Genpei battle near the Ikuta River.
The man begins to tell the story of the battle of Genpei, saying that it originated when Kajiwara Genta Kagesue fought a fierce battle with a branch of plum blossoms in his quiver.
When evening came and the monk asked for a place to stay the night, the man replied that he was the spirit of Kagesue.
The man tells him that he is the spirit of Kagesue, and disappears.

At midnight, while the monk is resting in the shade of a plum tree, a young warrior appears with a plum tree in his quiver.
When the monk asked him who he was, he answered that he was the spirit of Kageki, and showed that he was driven to fight in the battle of Shura-do.
Then, as the monk shows the scene of the battle of Ichinotani with a branch of plum tree in his quiver, he faces the enemy and fights with all his secret techniques in order to win the honor of his predecessor.

The spirit of Kagesue told the monk that he was free and asked him to make a memorial service for him, and then disappeared among the falling plum blossoms.