Fragment of the Tale of Saigyo Illustrated Scroll

The Tale of Saigyo is a biography of Saigyo, which combines historical fact and fiction. It tells the story of how Sato Hyoe no Jo Yoshikiyo, a samurai in the northern wing of Emperor Toba, felt the impermanence of life when his relative Fujiwara no Noriyasu suddenly died, and so he became a monk, travelling around the country and writing recited poems. The Tale of Saigyo Picture Scroll is a pictorial version of this story.
There are several known variants of the Tale of Saigyo emaki scroll from the Kamakura to Muromachi periods, but this painting is based on the original version with a colophon dated 1500 by Kaida Unemesukesukeyasu, and is a fragment of a work in which Sotatsu copied the illustrations and Karasuma Mitsuhiro (1579-1638) copied the legend. The copy is said to have been copied in 1627 at Mitsuhiro's request.