Paper short abstract:

This paper scrutinizes the changing material manifestation of the seventh-century statesman Fujiwara no Kamatari. The focus is on the socio-political implications of Edo-period depictions of his persona related to narratives, and his iconic ideal portrait on banknote designs from 1891 through 1945.

Paper long abstract:

The loyal supporter of the emperor and founder of the Fujiwara House, Kamatari (614-669), was blessed with a long cultural afterlife. He was configured in all thinkable material guises and socio-religious contexts through the centuries: from calligraphed script on paper in the eighth century to wooden and painted icon in the Heian period, from the lead in a performance genre of the late Muromachi period to the hero in handscrolls, fans, screens, printed books, and finally, banknotes and stamps well into the twentieth century. The breadth of materiality echoes not only the variety of patrons and audiences addressed, but also the range of personas he was imagined in: an ancestral deity, protector of the imperial household, prudent hero outwitting foreign powers, model for the modern Japanese people.

While many of these aspects are addressed in the book by Kuroda Satoshi, Fujiwara Kamatari: jikū wo kakeru (2011), unanswered questions remain. Why did he substitute his son Fuhito as hero in the kōwakamai performance piece, Taishokan, in the sixteenth century—which served as the source of myriad pictorial interpretations in the following centuries? How was his persona visually interpreted and morphing into different guises according to the pictorial medium of his representation? Were there time periods in which his popularity peaked and others when he was less ubiquitous?

This paper addresses these questions by focussing on two case studies of Kamatari's changing materialization: select Edo-period depictions of his persona in paintings and prints, and his depiction on banknotes from the Meiji through the early Shōwa era.