Ryūsai Shigeharu (柳斎重春) (artist 1802 – 1852)
Ichikawa Hakuen II (市川白猿) as Katsuma Gengobei (right) and Nakamura Matsue III (中むら松江) as Kikuno (きくの) - a mitate
1830
15.25 in x 10.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ryūsai Shigeharu ga (柳斉重春)
Publisher: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123 seal 25-527)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes - posted at commons.wikimedia
Lyon Collection - a ca. 1795 Toyokuni print of Satsuma Gengobei
Lyon Collection - an 1837 Sadamasu print of Katsuma Gengobei
Lyon Collection - an 1868 Kunichika print of Katsuma Gengobei
Birmingham Art Gallery, U.K. These actors were thought to have performed in the kabuki play Godairiki Koi no Fūjime (五大力恋緘) performed at the Kita no Shinchi theater in Osaka in 1830/04. However, it says in Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage: 1780-1830 on page 288-294, accompanied by a small color reproduction:
"Danjūrō is listed in a playbill as having performed this role briefly at the Kita Theatre, Kyoto, at the beginning of the third month, 1829. Matsue, however, is not listed alongside him. This is, therefore, a good example of an imagined (mitate) 'dream cast' print, in this case pairing the Edo male star with an Osaka female specialist. In this famous play by Namiki Gohei, Gengobei murders his courtesan lover Kikuno.
Extensive use is made in the print of the vivid chemical pigment Berlin (Prussian) blue, which seems to have been suddenly adopted for commercial printing in both Edo and Kyoto-Osaka at about this time. The surface of the print is heavily abraded, but the design is otherwise unrecorded."
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Danjūrō VII's pen name was Hakuen.
Particularly striking is the fan held by Hakuen. Decorated with a fish, a carp?, swimming in the current. There are two red seals on the fan indicating the stamp of the 'intended' original artist. The back of the fish is remarkably detailed showing individual scales. The fan itself is also blind-printed showing all of the fold lines. This must have involved additional steps in this prints production. The bottom and top edges of the fan are printed with metallic inks imitating the fans we all know today that are made, i.e., edged, with metallic-like papers as both decoration and support.
The outer robe of the female figure is decorated with realistic renditions of butterflies. These were liberally printed using Prussian blue, a new and expensive pigment at that time. An inner robe of prunus blossoms printed in metallic inks over previously printed interlinked swastikas, the manji motif, is remarkable.
Visitors to this page should take advantage of the zooming tool to experience this magnificent diptych to its fullest extent.
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The Osaka stage name 'Katsuma Gengobei' was changed to 'Satsuma Gengobei' (薩摩源五兵衛) for the Edo audiences. There is another print of this character in the Lyon Collection by Toyokuni I (#208). It is truly one of the finest prints in the this collection.
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There is a small set of Hokusai surimono in the Bibliothèque nationale de France entitled 'Vows to the Five Bodhisattvas' (Godairiki). This series "...implies associations with stories about faithful women. Godairiki was the word women of those days used to inscribe on shamisen, hairpins, and other personal items as a vow of fidelity to their lovers."
This is quoted from the English language supplement to Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections 8: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, p. 8.
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Illustrated in color in Kabuki Heroes of the Osaka Stage 1780-1830 by C. Andrew Gerstle, University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, page 288, no. 272.
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Nakamura Matsue III (三代目中村松江) (actor)
Ichikawa Hakuen II (二代目市川白猿) (actor)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (author)