Kitano Tsunetomi (北野恒富) (artist early 1880s - mid 1940s)

Umegawa [梅川] from the play Meido no hikyaku ['The Courier of Hell' - 冥途の飛脚]

Print

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Date:04/1922
Dimensions:11.5 in x 16 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Seal: Tsunetomi (恒富)
Links Waseda University
Honolulu Museum of Arts
Art Institute of Chicago
The National Museum of Asian Art
Rijksmuseum
Centre Céramique de Maastricht
Lyon Collection - another version of this print by Tsunetomi Description:The tradition of Umegawa in print form goes way back. Chikamatsu wrote a play in 1711 for the puppet theater where a poor young man, Chūbei falls in love with a prostitute name Umegawa. This couple was portrayed in a print by Sharaku as early in 1794.

For the 200th anniversary of Chikamatsu's birth, from 1922-25, a project of 15 volumes of his plays was produced. This was accompanied by a supplement of 16 prints. Some consider this print the best of the lot.

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Printed below the image: 西村熊吉; 山岸主計; et al.

The blocks were carved by Yamagishi Kazue and printed by Nishimura Kumakichi.

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At Scholten Japanese Art they said of this print: "This is the first print from a collaborative series of 18 prints depicting famous roles from plays written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) which were published to accompany a set of 16 volumes of his work that were issued on a monthly basis starting in April 1922."

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There are other copies of this print in the David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University and at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art.

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Illustrated:

1) There is a small black and white illustration of this print in The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints in the Robert O. Muller Collection, page 133.

Both the example in Chicago and in Honolulu give the title Umegawa to this print. This is the name of a character in the play Meido no hikyaku [冥土の飛脚 - The Courier from Hell].

2) in black and white in 近代日本美人画展 : 伝統木版画を支えた作家たち Exhibition of Modern Japanese Beauties: Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, Riccar Art Museum, 1982, n.p., no. 63.

3) in color in The Female Image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties, Abe Publisher, 2000, #106, p. 86.

4) in a small black and white reproduction in the "Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, under 'Gifts and loans', vol. 23, #2, 1929, p. 21 [Misidentified as being by Suge Tateshiko.]
Related entities modern prints (shin hanga - 新版画) (genre)
Taishō era (大正時代) (genre)
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門) (author)

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