JJRS > Volume 28 Issue 1-2 Explaining the "Mystery" of Ban Dainagon ekotoba

Matsuo Kenji

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In the Heian period vengeful spirits (goryō) were widely feared. This essay examines the identity of characters who appear in the twelfth-century handscroll Ban Dainagon ekotoba 伴大納言絵詞. This scroll is thought to have been composed to mollify the angry spirit of Tomo no Yoshio, a counselor (dainagon) who was believed to have become “a god of pestilence.” Some scholars have concluded from studying the text that one or two of the unidentified figures in the scrolls can be identified as Tomo no Yoshio. A thorough analysis of the pictures accompanying the text, however, reveals that the two unidentified characters are indeed Minamoto no Makoto, the victim of a plot by Tomo no Yoshio, who was then exiled to Izu.