Yoshitsune: prints and modern media

The legend of Yoshitsune has certain key conventions. Yoshitsune is youthful, slight, beautiful and elegant, while his warrrior-monk compnaion Benkei is brawny and burly. The print below, from the famous artist Hiroshige (1797-1858) shows these conventions in a depiction of Yoshitsune and Benkei's famous battle at the Gojō bridge in Kyoto.

The same scene by the late Tokugawa artist Tsuskioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) depicted the same scene in a more surreal style

Can you describe the changes in this version?

For a recent visual version of the same event, see the 2005 NHK mini-series "Yoshitsune"

Takezawa Hideaki (born 1982) stars as Yoshitsune. A singer and actor, he starred in a musical called "Dream Boy"

Benkei is played by Matsudaira Ken (born 1953), who played the role of the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune in a series called "The Roughneck Shogun" Abarenbo shōgun

 

		BENNIE K - Benkei & Ushiwakamaru LIVE Uploaded by kurikuri777. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
the same scene as realized in kabuki	and the 2005 NHK miniseries	. . . and hip-hop

Benkei dies defending Yoshitsune . . . .

 

in the 1966 NHK version . . .	and the 1986 NHK series "Musahi bō Benkei" or "Benkei, Monk of Musashi"