Jukōdō Yoshikuni (寿好堂よし国) (artist )
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) as the apprentice Igo (伊吾) of the Amakawaya (天川屋) in the play Ōishizuri sakura tanzaku
03/10/1822
10 in x 14.9 in (Overall dimensions) Signed: Jukōdō Yoshikuni ga
寿好堂よし国画
Printer's inscription: suri Matsu-iwa (スリ松岩)
in lower left corner
Publishers: Toshikuraya Shinbei
(Marks 539 - seal 25-553)
and Ariwaradō Chūbei (Marks 015 - seal 04-019)
Lyon Collection - Hokushū version of this same performance
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - an 1866 Kunichika representation of this character
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - an 1866 Kunisada II triptych including this character
Hankyu Culture Foundation This image commemorates a performance at the Naka no Shibai in Osaka
Although the plot for Ōishizuri sakura tanzaku ('Ōishi's stone rubbing, a poem card, and flowering cherry': 大石摺桜花短冊) remains unknown, some role names (such as the virtuous wives Oishi and Osono, or Okaru's brother, Teraoka Heiemon) inscribed on prints by several artists for this production suggest that the story line was adapted from the most famous of all revenge plays, Kanadehon Chūshingura ('Copybook of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers'). Prints by Hokushū and Yoshikuni for this performance further identify Utaemon's role of the wine-shop merchant as Amakawaya Igo (later called Yatō Yomoshichi). Utaemon also performed as Tashirō Yasubei (a.k.a. the servant Yasuke).
Provenance: This impression is from the Haber Collection (illustrated in Schwaab, Osaka Prints, 1989, no. 50). Prints from this collection are admired for their fine color preservation, and often for their rarity, as with this design.
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Some of the text reads: 四方の酒店の小わらはの忠孝を全ふせる 俳優の仕打をかんして イヨ親玉有かたいと申 あまり有りて四方にきこえし評判は扇ともへのあふきてもなほ 雪のや早房
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Ikeda bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei, vol. 1, 1997, #345, p. 117.
2) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, #50. Schwaab wrote: [This Yoshikuni version which]... uses Utaemon's fan-form crest; was published by Toshin and Chū, who published the majority of Jukōdō-circle prints; and bears the special printer's seal of Matsuwa but no Utaemon poem."
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Toshikuraya Shinbei (利倉屋新兵衛) (publisher)
Ariwaradō Chūbei (有原堂忠兵衛) (publisher)
Chūshingura (忠臣蔵 - 47 Rōnin) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)