Back
Back
  • Nakamura Fukusuke I as Tadanobu, the fox representing the first two months of the year from the series 'A PARODY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS (MITATE JU NI KAGETSU NOUCHI' (見立十二ヶ月ノ内)
Nakamura Fukusuke I as Tadanobu, the fox representing the first two months of the year from the series 'A PARODY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS (MITATE JU NI KAGETSU NOUCHI' (見立十二ヶ月ノ内)
Nakamura Fukusuke I as Tadanobu, the fox representing the first two months of the year from the series 'A PARODY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS (MITATE JU NI KAGETSU NOUCHI' (見立十二ヶ月ノ内)
Nakamura Fukusuke I as Tadanobu, the fox representing the first two months of the year from the series 'A PARODY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS (MITATE JU NI KAGETSU NOUCHI' (見立十二ヶ月ノ内)
Comments and Tags (0)
Share

Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
Utagawa Kunihisa II (二代目]歌川国久) (artist 1832 – 1891)

Nakamura Fukusuke I as Tadanobu, the fox representing the first two months of the year from the series 'A PARODY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS (MITATE JU NI KAGETSU NOUCHI' (見立十二ヶ月ノ内)

Print

11/1859
9.875 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyōsai Toyokuni hitsu (一陽斎豊国筆)
Inset signed: Kunihisa ga (国久)
Publisher: Iseya Kanekichi (Marks 145 seal: 21-059)
Carver: Yokogawa Takejirō
Waseda University
Waseda University - the complete set
Prints of Japan
Edo-Tokyo Museum Months 1 and 2 from the series, A Selection of the Twelve Months Mitate ju ni kagetsu nouchi 「見立十二ヶ月ノ内」

The design on Tadanobu's robe prominently displays the Genji-kuruma (源氏車) or 'Genji wheel' motif.

In her doctoral thesis 'Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura: The Visual Dimensions in a Kabuki Performance', Beverly Angelique Taylor wrote on pages 156-157 in December 1995: "The genjiguruma mon design of the Gidayū singer Toyotake Masatayu III was used for the costume of Tadanobu in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura when this play was first appeared at the puppet theatre in Osaka in 1747, and ever since has been a favorite costume design in both the bunraku and kabuki performances of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura. This was in spite of the fact that during the Edo period, the common people of the lowest class (like the actors) could only wear white circles, since by government edict they were not permitted to wear mon (Shaver 239).".

****

Inset design: Shimenawa, pine branch, saké kettle, red lacquer cups

Portrait by Toyokuni III (Kunisada). Inset by Kunihisa II.
Iseya Kanekichi (伊勢屋兼吉) (publisher)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助: 3/1839 to 6/1860) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)