Utagawa Toyokuni I (初代歌川豊国) (artist 1769 – 02/24/1825)
Early kabuki diptych of Bandō Mitsugorō III (坂東三津五郎) on the left and Onoe Kikugorō III (尾上菊五郎) on the right
07/1816
19.5 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: unknown
Censor's seal: kiwame
Futaka date seal: 7/1816
What are we to make of the problem that the only known example of a print is in the Lyon Collection?
Timon Screech in his essay "Ukiyo-e Artists and the City" wrote on page 124:
"The attrition rates of prints is very great. Sometimes we have only one or two impressions left, even though thousands may originally have been printed. But one can also hypothesize that some prints exist in only one or two copies because they were seized and pulped. The authorities - whether the government or the publishers' guild - were not going to let them circulate. And then there are occasional documented cases, such as that of Kitagawa Utamaro... in which artists did go too far. Their pictures were destroyed, and the maker and publisher were manacled or punished in some other way."
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While the name of the actor, Bandō Mitsugorō III (坂東三津五郎), is clearly printed along the left edge of the left-hand panel, there are two other ways of determining who he is: 1) his physiognomy and 2) his crests. Toyokuni I had mastered the craft of drawing a facial likeness better than anyone else in his time so that theatergoers would recognize him at a glance, but added to this was the actor's crest, the hanakatsumi (花勝見) or four petaled flower is clearly shown in white against a darker ground at the bottom of his outer robe. And, if that was not enough, another of this actor's crests can be seen in the blue and white tenugui which covers the top of his head.
Bandō Mitsugorō III (三代目坂東三津五郎: 11/1799 to 12/1831) (actor)
Onoe Kikugorō III (三代目尾上菊五郎: 11/1815-3/1848) (actor)