PHAVOS™ · UNIVERSES · FLOATING WORLDS · CA. 1841–1842
Tokiwa Gozen Fleeing Through the Snow
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Edo period · ca. 1841–1842
01
The Artwork
The print is formally titled Tokiwa Gozen from the series Stories of Wise and Virtuous Women (Kenjo reppuden). Designed by Utagawa Kuniyoshi around 1841–1842, it shows Tokiwa Gozen moving through deep snow with her three young sons pressed close beneath her robes.
Kuniyoshi builds the scene around the weather. Snow crosses the image, the children almost disappear beneath the fabric, and Tokiwa bends forward against the cold. The smallest details — feet beneath the robe, the infant held at her chest — turn a historical legend into an immediate physical act of care.
02
The Artist
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) was one of the major ukiyo-e artists of nineteenth-century Japan. He became famous for warrior imagery, legends and dramatic scenes, but his work could move just as easily into humour, animals and intimate human subjects.
That range matters here. Instead of spectacle or battle, Kuniyoshi focuses on posture, fabric, snow and the closeness between a mother and her children. The drama comes from exposure to the elements rather than combat.
03
The Story
Tokiwa Gozen was the companion of the warrior Minamoto no Yoshitomo. After his defeat in the Heiji conflict of 1159–1160, she fled with their three sons through the snow. The youngest child held against her body was Ushiwakamaru, who would later become the celebrated warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
The episode became a recurring subject in Japanese visual culture. What survives across those versions is the same image: Tokiwa using her own clothing and body as shelter, keeping the children close while moving through hostile weather.
Sanctuary is the space she creates around them.
04
The PHAVOS™ Interpretation
The name comes from the gesture at the centre of the print.
Tokiwa’s robes become a temporary shelter. There is no architecture, no protected room and no distance from the storm — only a mother wrapping her children into the space immediately around her body.
That act of protection is the reason PHAVOS™ calls the piece Sanctuary.
The fluorescent orange Killin’ Luxury™ mark is added as a contemporary interruption across the nineteenth-century image. Its colour and gesture are deliberately foreign to the print, bringing street language into a scene that would normally be encountered behind glass or reproduced with reverence.
The original tenderness remains visible beneath that intervention. The contrast between the quiet protective gesture and the aggressive orange mark is what gives the garment its tension.
05 · The Piece
Sanctuary
Kuniyoshi’s image of Tokiwa Gozen sheltering her children from the snow, reworked across a heavyweight beige oversized T-shirt with a fluorescent orange Killin’ Luxury™ intervention.
View the piece →