![Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右ェ門) as Yorikane (頼兼) on the right and Fujikawa Kayū II (藤川花友) as Takao (高尾) on the left from the play <i>Meiboku Sendai Hagi</i> [伽藍先代萩] - 'Struggles in the Date Clan' at the Kado [角] theater](https://woodblockprints.org/media/lyon_collection/images/5/29964_ca_object_representations_media_555_large.jpg)
Gigadō Ashiyuki (戯画堂芦ゆき) (artist )
Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右ェ門) as Yorikane (頼兼) on the right and Fujikawa Kayū II (藤川花友) as Takao (高尾) on the left from the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi [伽藍先代萩] - 'Struggles in the Date Clan' at the Kado [角] theater
09/15/1816
10.5 in x 15.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ashiyuki ga (芦幸画)
Publisher: Shioya Chōbei (Marks 475 - seal 25-092)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hankyu Culture Foundation - right panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - left panel
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Ville de Genève - left panel only Yorikane can often be identified by the sparrow and bamboo motif on or near him. Takao is often seen wearing robes with maple leaves or they are somewhere nearby.
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Illustrated: Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints) Volume 1, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka 1997, no. 202, p. 70.
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There is another copy of this diptych in the Kamigata Osaka Museum.
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The Takao/Yorikane plays were actually loosely based on true historical events "...related to the succession disputes within the Date clan in Sendai in the 1660s. The legitimacy of the daimyo Date Tsunamune and his heirs was challenged when it was disclosed that Tsunamune was enamored of the famous courtesan Takao II of the Great Miura bordello (the legend that inspired the kabuki play was a colorful mix of fact and fiction)."
Quoted from: "Wild Boars and Dirty Rats: Kyōka Surimono Celebrating Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Arajishi Otokonosuke" by John T. Carpenter, Impressions, no. 28, 2006-2007, p. 47.
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Osaka Prints gave this summary of the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi (伽藍先代萩):
"Meiboku sendai hagi (Sandalwood and bush clover of Sendai: 伽羅先代萩) dramatized the intrigues over succession within the Date clan of Sendai during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. It was performed in an alternate sekai ("world" or theatrical setting: 世界), set back in time during the Onin civil war under the Ashikaga shogunate of the fifteenth century (Ashikaga thus becomes a theatrical substitute for the Date clan name). It is a classic play, so popular that during the Edo period it had at least one performance nearly every year since its premiere in 1777. The fictionalized central story involved Lord Ashikaga Yorikane's forays into the pleasure quarter and his murder of the courtesan Takao (高尾). This episode is an amplification of an actual incident in which the twenty-one-year-old clan leader Date Tsunamune became the lover of the Yoshiwara courtesan Takao, causing a scandal that led to his downfall. Another story line involves Nikki Danjô (Yorikane's evil nephew), the orchestrator of a conspiracy to overthrow Yorikane. The intrigue failed, however, and Nikki was slain."
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
Shioya Chōbei (塩屋長兵衛) (publisher)
Fujikawa Kayū II (二代目藤川花友) (actor)
Ashikaga Yorikane (足利頼兼) (role)
Meiboku Sendai Hagi (伽藍先代萩) (author)