Utagawa Sadamasu (歌川貞升) (artist )
Four actors performing in a mitate: Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右衛門) as Tsujikaze Hachihei (辻風八平) on the far right, to his left is Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Ushiwaka Saburō (牛若三郎), next is Nakamura Shikan II (中村芝翫) as Inaba Taro (稲葉太良) and on the far left is Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as Inaba (稲場)
01/1835
Signed: Gochōtei Sadamasu
五蝶亭貞升画
Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei
(Marks 536 - seal 21-193)
Lyon Collection - single panel - 2nd from right
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg - second panel from right
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg - panel on the right
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg - second panel from left
Hankyu Culture Foundation - right panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 2nd from right
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 2nd from left
Hankyu Culture Foundation - left panel
The Philadelphia Museum of Art - the full tetraptych Osakaprints.com wrote of the prints from this series: "We have not verified the kabuki play or legend that inspired this design. The ideograms for mitate are written at the top of each cartouche, indicating imaginary performances (actors who had not actually played the particular roles together in a stage production of the story)."
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There is a complete set of these prints in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
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Illustrated in:
1) in color inIkeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 3, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka 2001, no. 111.
2) Utagawa Sadamasu: Distinguished Osaka Print Artist by Jan van Doesburg, pages 42-42 and 66, 2012.
Tenmaya Kihei (天満屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Arashi Rikan II (二代目嵐璃寛: 9/1828 - 6/1837) (actor)
Nakamura Shikan II (二代目中村芝翫: 11/1825 - 12/1835) (actor)
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
Iwai Shijaku I (初代岩井紫若: 11/1822-2/1844) (actor)