• Onoe Kikugorō III (尾上菊五郎) as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) emerging from a <i>kago</i> and Matsumoto Koshirō V (松本幸四郎) as Banzui Chōbei (ばんずい長兵衛) holding a lantern - from the 'Suzugamori' (鈴ヶ森) scene possibly from the play <i>Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita</i> [幡随長兵衛精進爼板]
Onoe Kikugorō III (尾上菊五郎) as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) emerging from a <i>kago</i> and Matsumoto Koshirō V (松本幸四郎) as Banzui Chōbei (ばんずい長兵衛) holding a lantern - from the 'Suzugamori' (鈴ヶ森) scene possibly from the play <i>Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita</i> [幡随長兵衛精進爼板]
Onoe Kikugorō III (尾上菊五郎) as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) emerging from a <i>kago</i> and Matsumoto Koshirō V (松本幸四郎) as Banzui Chōbei (ばんずい長兵衛) holding a lantern - from the 'Suzugamori' (鈴ヶ森) scene possibly from the play <i>Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita</i> [幡随長兵衛精進爼板]
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Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

Onoe Kikugorō III (尾上菊五郎) as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) emerging from a kago and Matsumoto Koshirō V (松本幸四郎) as Banzui Chōbei (ばんずい長兵衛) holding a lantern - from the 'Suzugamori' (鈴ヶ森) scene possibly from the play Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita [幡随長兵衛精進爼板]

Print

02/06/1822
20 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock prints
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
五渡亭国貞画
Publisher: Yamaguchiya Tōbei
(Marks 591 - seal 15-005)
Seal : kiwame
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 1837 Kunisada triptych from the play 'Soga Moyō Hiyoku no Torikumi' with similar scene
Lyon Collection - a Toyokuni III triptych from ca. 1850 with Gonpachi and Chōbei
Lyon Collection - Kuniyoshi mitate print of Koshirō V as Chōbei The play Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita was written by Sakurada Jisuke I (1734-1806) in 1803.

In a later play by Mokuami the National Theater of Japan describes Banzui Chōbei as: "...the boss of the Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Machi Yakko (a group of ruffian townspeople who wore flamboyant clothing) and a kyokaku who fights against the strong for the sake of the weak. He objects to a group of samurai being violent in a playhouse, and is called out by the samurai side, who resent this. Knowing that this is a trap, he says goodbye to his family, and goes to be killed with his head held high. The kyokaku upon whom he is modeled actually lived during the Edo period (1603-1868), and is said to have opposed a group of samurai with well over 100 followers."

****

In Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada, edited by Andreas Marks, University Press of Florida, 2015, on page 41 it says: "The historical Shirai (in real life Hirai) Gonpachi was a highway robber who was executed on the third day of the eleventh month of 1679 and actually never met Banzuiin Chōbei (d. 1650). Their fictitious meeting was an invention of the kabuki theater and first appeared in the play Chopping Board for Banzui Chōbei's Lenten Fare (Banzui Chōbei shojin manaita), performed aat the Nakamura Theater in 1803. Shirai Gonpachi became the most popular motif in actor Tōkaidō series.
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Onoe Kikugorō III (三代目尾上菊五郎: 11/1815-3/1848) (actor)
Matsumoto Kōshirō V (五代目松本幸四郎: 11/1801 to 5/1838) (actor)
Yamaguchiya Tōbei (山口屋藤兵衛) (publisher)
Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) (role)