Utagawa Toyokuni I (初代歌川豊国) (artist 1769 – 02/24/1825)
Nakamura Shikan I (中村芝翫) as Hanaregoma Chōkichi (放駒長吉) standing before a wooden screen
ca 1818 – 1819
10.5 in x 15.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi (Marks 595 seal: 04-007)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 1857 Kunisada II triptych with Hanaregoma Chōkichi and a free-standing screen Shikan's robe is patterned with the shikanjima (芝翫縞), a combination of four stripes interspered with interlocking rings. This design is what would help us to recognize this actor even if his name wasn't printed above his figure because it was unique to him. This pattern first appeared on a robe worn by Utaemon III in 1814 when he played in the role of Hanaregoma Chōkichi. Utaemon's poetry name was Shikan at that time written as 芝翫, but is also a homonym for the term '4 rings' (四鐶), also pronounced shikan.
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This print may well represent a scene from the play Hana no Iro Futatsu Chōchō (壮色双蝶蝶) or Futatsu Chōchō Kuruwa Nikki (双蝶仝曲輪日記), or one of their many variants, based on the use of a standing screen which appears in these plays. A similar screen in a triptych by Kunisada II and with this character was published in 1857. That composition, linked to above, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A similar composition in the same museum is from 1854 and by Toyokuni III.
Yamamotoya Heikichi (山本屋平吉) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
sumō (相撲) (genre)
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)