Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾 - 1833-1904) (artist )
'Kakeai' (かけ合い): A dialogue between Sawamura Tanosuke III (沢村田之助) as Gompachi (白井権八) and Chōbei about smallpox. - the right-hand panel of a diptych
07/1862
9.625 in x 13.875 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Yoshiiku ga (芳幾画)
Publisher: Iseya Shōnosuke
(Marks 155 - seal 22-231)
Carver: Katada Chōjirō (? 彫長)
Combined date and censor's seal: aratame - 7/1862
Japan Arts Council 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.
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There may be another copy of this print in the collection of the University of Minnesota Library.
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)
Iseya Shōnosuke (伊勢屋庄之助) (publisher)
Katada Chōjirō (片田長次郎) (carver)
Sawamura Tanosuke III (三代目沢村田之助: 1/1859 to July, 1878) (actor)
Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) (role)