Thursday, October 29, 2020

(2221) The legend says that warrior monk Benkei...

Nihon_arekore_02246_Benkei_Yositsune_phones_100_cl

 ...met a young man with a flute, confronted each other,  the young man won and Benkei became his retainer and stayed with him until the end; the young man was Minamoto no Yoshitsune  (源 義経, 1159 –1189), brother of the founder of Kamakura shogunate, Minamoto no Yoritomo (源 頼朝, 1147–1199). What the legend doesn't say but Tokyo Metro does is that they met when they bumped into each other because they were too busy looking at their cellphones. (Ushikawa-maru/牛若丸 was Yoshitsune's name when he was young.) 

(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).


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