I’m not entirely sure how Go plays into this story, but it’s a wild print that shows Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who had apparently been in the middle of a game of Go, fighting the legendary Yōkai Tsuchigumo (土蜘蛛, i.e. Earth/Dirt Spider), a giant spider demon that lives in the earth.
I’m not sure why so many fights broke out while samurai were playing Go in feudal Japan. But, Minamoto no Yorimitsu is Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s (whose retainer, Sato Tadanobu, beat a bunch of samurai to death with a floor goban) great, great, great, great, great uncle (5th great uncle), so it must run in the family.
love all of these art posts!