Tsunemasa playing the biwa on Chikubushima, as depicted in a screen painting by Suzuki Shuitsu. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Japanese: 平 経正 (Taira no Tsunemasa)
Taira no Tsunemasa was a nephew of Taira no Kiyomori and Taira clan warrior who fought in the Genpei War (1180-1185). He is represented in the Tale of the Heike as particularly talented in playing the biwa.
In one episode in the Tale of the Heike, while traveling east from Kyoto to join up with Taira clan forces battling the Minamoto clan, Tsunemasa made a pilgrimage to Tsukubusuma Shrine on Chikubushima Island in Lake Biwa. There, he played the biwa in order to present his music as an offering to the deity of the shrine. According to the Tale, the deity Benzaiten, impressed and appreciative, then appeared to him in the form of a white dragon.
References
- Gallery labels, Metropolitan Museum.[1]