Jukōdō Yoshikuni (寿好堂よし国) (artist )

Nakamura Shikan II (中村芝翫) performing five roles in the play Rangiku Tsuyu no Adamakura [乱菊露仂枕] - from the Onagori Kyōgen Shosagoto gomai no uchi (御名残狂言所作事五枚ノ内)

Print

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Date:10/1827
Dimensions:52.25 in x 15.375 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Toyokawa Yoshikuni ga
豊川よし国画
Publisher: Honya Seishichi
Marks 123 -seal 25-127
Links Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hankyu Culture Foundation - right panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 2nd from right
Hankyu Culture Foundation - center panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 2nd from left
Hankyu Culture Foundation - far left panel
Philadelphia Museum of Art - 2nd from right
Victoria and Albert Museum - all five prints Description:This series commemorates a performance at the Kado Theater in Osaka in 10/1827.

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Left to right: Nakamura Shikan II as a palanquin bearer (kagokaki かごかき), the fox spirit Kampei (狐勘平), a playboy (daijin 大人), a babysitter (子もり) with a child, a man with a pipe, and the fox spirit Kuzunoha (葛の葉狐).

This is a hengemono (transition performance) in which the actor plays all the roles in one play. It is described on the prints as a farewell performance or onagori kyôgen (御名残狂言) since Shikan left Osaka for Edo at the end of 1827.

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Illustrated in color in Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei, vol. 1 (1997), #399 - where only four of the five panels are shown.

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Listed but unillustrated in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, Philadelphia Museum of Art,1973, page 254, #385.

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For a fairly thorough account of the background story about Kuzunoha, the figure on the far right, see the Lyon Collection #934.
Related entities Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
boshi-e (母子絵) (genre)
Nakamura Shikan II (二代目中村芝翫: 11/1825 - 12/1835) (actor)

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