Kiyohime

Menpes toured Japan in 1887 and his Japanese studies were subsequently exhibited in the first of series of successful one-man shows at the Dowdeswell Gallery. The present subject illustrates the doomed romance of Anchin and Kiyohome, an ancient Japanese 'dragon' tale in which Anchin, a travelling monk, promises himself to the daughter of his host. Unable to fulfil his promise, he is pursued by Kiyohome and hides in a bell in a Dojiji temple. Kiyohime turns herself variously into a dragon or serpent and melts the bell with her fiery breath, killing them both. For Menpes' impressions of Japan, see his Japan, A Record in Colour, London, 1901, with 100 plates after the artist's Japanese sketches.