Shunbaisai Hokuei (春梅斎北英) (artist )

Arashi Rikan II as the shogun Taira Taro Yoshikado in Sōma Tarō mibae bundan ('The Story of Tarō, Heir to the Sōma Clan') [相馬太郎みばえ文談]

Print

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Date:1832
Dimensions:9.75 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Shunkōsai Hokuei ga
春江斎北英
Seal: Fumoto no yuki
(Plum tree in the foothills)
Links Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Lyon Collection - related diptych by Shigeharu
Lyon Collection - single Shigeharu print, the right side of the diptych
Philadelphia Museum of Art - Hirosada print of Soma Tarō, right panel of a triptych
Lyon Collection - thematically linked Kuniyoshi print
Lyon Collection - another thematically linked Kuniyoshi print
Lyon Collection - thematically linked Toyokuni III print
Lyon Collection - thematically linked Yoshitsuya triptych
Pushkin Museum of Art Description:This print commemorates a performance at the Naka Theater in Osaka in 11/1832.

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"This performance of Soma Tarō mibae bundan (The story of Tarō, heir to the Soma clan) was part of a kaomise (face-showing: 顔見世), the introduction of newly engaged actors for the upcoming season. It was an adaptation of the tale of Taira Masakado (Soma no Kojirō, died 940), a general formerly with the regent Fujiwara Takahira, who maneuvered to take control of the eight eastern provinces and declare himself emperor. Takahira's warriors defeated Masakado and then his son Soma Tarō in a failed attempt to avenge his father's death.

Theatrical dramatizations featuring Masakado were infused with an atmosphere of the supernatural. Masakado had the ability to create ghostly clones of himself, and his castle in Soma (near Sendai) was said to be haunted by the shades of his retainers....

Soma Tarō is shown opening a scroll containing magical incantations, which he hopes to use against the Fujiwara. On his right, he spies his father Masakado's spirit fire flickering in the air.

Poem (signed "Jubai Shujin"):

Aoyagi no me
wa hitoshio ni
iro zo aru
ume mo tsubaki mo
ikade oyoban

The young buds of the willow
are so colorful
how could the plum
and camellia
ever equal them?

The verse, printed in metallics, includes the word me ("new growth"), but it also means "eyes," and refers to Rikan's expressive eyes — the actor was nicknamed metoku Rikan (Rikan with the powerful eyes). The plum is also an allusion to Rikan's stage rival, Nakamura Utaemon III.

This composition is widely considered to be one of Hokuei's masterpieces. Beyond the superb block cutting (by Kasuke, who hand-stamped his seal in the lower right corner) and sophisticated color printing, the design is celebrated for the expressive use of a startling cobalt blue in the background, contributing to the supernatural atmosphere of the scene."

This section is quoted directly from OsakaPrints.com.

More of the background story

"Taira no Masakado, an ambitious and disaffected courtier, left Kyōto at the beginning of the tenth century and established a large domain in the eastern region around the present city of Tokyo. As his power increased, the government grew apprehensive and when imperial troops were sent against him in 940 he was defeated and killed. Two children succeeded him: a son Soma Tarō, and a daughter, Takiyashi, who both vowed to restore their family's lost fortunes. To obtain supernatural powers like her father's, young Takiyashi took religious orders, became a devotee of the Bodhisattva Jizō and undertook severe silent ascetic practices one winter on Mt. Tsukuba. Her persistence was rewarded and she met an elderly magician name Iga no Jutarō on the mountain from whom she learned the elements of toad magic. She subsequently returned to her father's ruined palace and worked to restore its former glory."

Quoted from: Hirosada: Osaka Printmaker by Roger Keyes, 1984, p. 101.

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Illustrated:

1) in color in a full-page reproduction in Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings - 1680-1860 edited by Julia Meech and Jane Oliver, Asia Society and Japan Art Society with the University of Washington Press, number 31, page 204, 2008.

"As Tarō unrolls a scroll of spells to use to avenge the death of his father, the wizard-general Masakado, he senses the spirit of his parent, manifested as a silver flame." (p. 205) [A shinka 神火 or a kind of sacred flame is seen just to the right - our left - of Soma Tarō. It represents the soul of his father who has not been able to pass over to 'the otherworld.']

2) in color in The Male Journey in Japanese Prints by Roger Keyes, University of California Press, 1989, fig. 175, p. 124. "The Osaka actor Arashi Rikan II as Soma Tarō unrolling a handscroll in the presence of a spirit fire. 1832. Tarō swore to avenge the death of his father, the sorcerer and general Masakado. As he opens a scroll of magical incantations, he feels the presence of his father's spirit."

3) in a black and white reproduction in Impressions, no. 20, 1998, pl. 4, p. 68.

4) in color in Hokuei: Master of Osaka Kabuki Prints by John Fiorillo, Ludion, 2024, cat. 88, page 63. There is also a smaller color reproduction on page 160 with extra information. It was also used in a somewhat cropped image for the cover of this book.

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There are two other prints by Shigeharu in the Lyon Collection related to this print. See the links above.

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The copy of this print formerly owned by Dr. Martin Levitz has a second red seal in the bottom right, that of the carver Naniwa surimono hangishi Kasuke. Sebastian Izzard dated it to early 1834.
Related entities actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
magicians (mahōtsukai - 魔法使い) (genre)
Arashi Rikan II (二代目嵐璃寛: 9/1828 - 6/1837) (actor)
Taira Masakado (平將門) (role)

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