• Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> [台頭緑色幕]
Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> [台頭緑色幕]
Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> [台頭緑色幕]
Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> [台頭緑色幕]
Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> [台頭緑色幕]
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Utagawa Kunihiro (歌川国広) (artist )

Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play Daigashira Midori no Iromaku [台頭緑色幕]

Print

03/1834
20 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Kunihiro ga (国廣画)
Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei (Marks 536 - seal 21-193)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - 3/9/1825 diptych of the same theme by Toyoshige
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 1831 version by Kunisada
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 7/1821 version by Yoshikuni
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 3/1825 Kunisada version - right panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - 3/1825 Kunisada version - left panel
Art Institute of Chicago - ca. 1798-99 Utamaro print of Sankatsu and Hanshichi
Lyon Collection - an 1828 Shigeharu print of Akaneya Hanshichi with his child " "Sankatsu and Hanshichi" is the popular name of plays for both the puppet and Kabuki stages, treating the suicide of lovers of the same name. The real-life incident on which the plays are based took place in 1695, when Sankatsu, adopted daughter of Minoya Heizaemon of Nagamachi in Osaka, and Akaneya Hanshichi of Gojō in Yamato Province, commited love-suicide together in the Namba district fo Osaka. The most famous theatrical version of the story is the play Hade sugata onna mai-ginu, first performed in 1772."

Quoted from: The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro by Asano and Clark, text volume, p. 203.

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This diptych, with remarkably good colors, commemorates a performance at the Naka Theater in Osaka in 1834. The curatorial notes from the Victoria and Albert Museum note that: "The play concerns a domestic tragedy involving a man who has left his wife for a courtesan. This scene shows them starting off on a boat journey towards a double suicide..." This scene comes at the end of Act I and shows Akaneya Hanshichi heating himself by a brazier in the boat.

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There is another copy of this diptych at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario.

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Illustrated in color in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collection 5: Victoria and Albert Museum II, Kodansha, 1989, #144.
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Arashi Rikan II (二代目嵐璃寛: 9/1828 - 6/1837) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Tenmaya Kihei (天満屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
Iwai Shijaku I (初代岩井紫若: 11/1822-2/1844) (actor)
Akaneya Hanshichi (あかねや半七) (role)