Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
Nakamura Fukusuke I as Sukeroku (助六) and Agemaki (揚巻)
03/1857
9.5 in x 13.875 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Daitora (Marks U036 - seal 22-004)
Date: 2/1857
Censor's seal: aratame
Waseda University
Lyon Collection - An 1850 Kuniyoshi print of these two characters
Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts, Budapest The National Theater of Japan gives this summary regarding Agemaki: "Play character is from “Sukeroku Yukari no Edozakura” (Sukeroku, the Hero of Edo) Common name: Sukeroku
Even in Yoshiwara, a famous red-light district, Agemaki is a top-class courtesan known as an oiran or a keisei. She wears nearly 20 hair ornaments, including kanzashi hairpins and combs, and a gorgeous uchikake formal kimono. Agemaki is a proud woman, and she boldly insults Ikyu, even though he is a regular at her establishment, as he has disrespected her lover Sukeroku; she tells him, “I would not mistake Ikyu for Sukeroku even in the dark.” "
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There is a Kuniyoshi diptych in the Lyon Collection showing these two kabuki characters in similar costumes each posed before a large archery target. (See the link above.)
The curatorial files from Waseda University identify the actor Nakamura Fukusuke I in the role of Sukeroku.
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The name of the onnagata as the courtesan Agemaki may have its origins in the title of the fourty-seventh chapter of The Tale of Genji. Agemaki in that case means the 'trefoil knot' and appears in a poem by Kaoru. 'Trefoil knots' were used to wrap gifts. The poem reads:
In these trefoil knots may you
secure forever our eternal bond,
that our threads may always merge
in that one place where they met."
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助: 3/1839 to 6/1860) (actor)
Daitora (大虎) (publisher)