Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)
Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右衛門) in His Last Appearance as Gotōbei (五斗兵衛) from the series Hits of a Lifetime of Kyōgen (Issei ichidai atari kyōgen 一世一代当狂言)
03/1825
9.5 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed:Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Publisher: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123 - seal 25-527)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Waseda University
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) Nakamura Utaemon III as Gotōbei as presented on a fan in the play Yoshitsune Koshigoejō (義経腰越状) performed at the Kado Theatre, 3rd month 1825. For another (later) impression see Schwaab, Osaka Prints, p. 106, #75. This superb print uses extensive use of expensive gauffrage, lacquer, gold and silver metallic pigments.
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"This is one of at least five bust portraits of Utaemon III on fans engraved by Kasuke and published at the time of the actor's retirement performance. Utaemon's "retirement" performance was so well received, and his spirits and health so revived, that he never left the stage, but continued acting without pause until his death at the age of sixty in 1838."
Qutoed from: The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints: A Collection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Japanese Woodblock Prints in the Philadelphia Museum of Art by Roger S. Keyes and Keiko Mizushima, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, p. 100.
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Illustrated:
1) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, vol. 9, Kodansha, 1989, p. 205, #130.
2) in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 1, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka 1997, no. 164.
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There are two other prints from this series of 5 in the Lyon Collection - see numbers 355 and 374.
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The term issei ichidai (一世一代) appears on another print of Nakamura Utaemon III in the Lyon Collection. That one is by Kunisada and is dated to 1816. How many times can one man retire? See #440.
"Both issei and ichidai are ways of saying 'a human life,' and their use together gives greater weight than would either word used alone. It demonstrates traditionally given in Japan to the lifework of a serious artist."
Quoted from: The New Kabuki Encyclopedia by Samuel L. Leiter, p. 226.
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 Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
Gotōbei (五斗兵衛) (role)