Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳)

Print: Nakamura Utaemon IV as Daruma portrayed on a hanging scroll - Ni Daruma no ichijiku (似達磨の一軸)

Dates: circa 1848,created

Dimensions: 9.75 in,14.25 in,Overall dimensions

Medium: Japanese color woodblock print

Inscription:

Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi hitsu
一勇斎国芳筆
Seal: Kuniyoshi
Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō
(Marks 127 - seal 11-001)
Censor seals: Murata and Mera

Physical description:

This print commemorates a performance of the play Takagi Oriemon Budō Jitsuroku (高木織右武実録) at the Nakamura Theater.

****

Illustrated:

1) In color in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap, p. 161.

2) In color in Kuniyoshi by Jūzō Suzuki, Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, 1992, no. 316.

3) In color in Japanese Prints: Images of the Floating World, Barry Davies Oriental Art, #72, illustrated on p. 95.

See another print in the Lyon Collection in which two actors seem to struggle over a similar Daruma scroll.