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 representing the 3rd and 4th months of the year: "March, the Doll Festival, and April, a Bonito Seller (鰹売)" - A Parody of the Twelve Months (Mitate ju ni kagetsu nouchi 見立十二ヶ月ノ内)
1859
9.875 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Kōchōrō Toyokuni hitsu (香蝶楼豊国筆)
Inset signed: Kunihisa ga (国久)
Publisher: Iseya Kanekichi (Marks 145 seal: 21-059)
Carver: Yokogawa Takejirō
Waseda University
Waseda University - the complete set
Lyon Collection - another Toyokuni III prints with a tachibina
Edo-Tokyo Museum Inset: tachibina (立雛)
There are two prints in the Lyon Collection which prominently display the tachibina, this one and #254. Both use of dolls are dead giveaways that this print represents the tradition Japanese third month, the month of the Girl's Festival, the jōshi no sekku (女子の節句). The festival today is referred to as the hinamatsuri (雛祭).
"The dolls for this festival were originally simple affairs, standing dolls called tachibina, but always representations of the dairi or imperial couple. These consisted of paper folded around wooden sticks."
Quoted from: Andon 34 by Ken Vos, August 1990, p. 62.
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Bonito (鰹) are also known as katsuo (かつお) or skipjack tuna. This fish was particularly popular in Edo. It was caught off of Kamakura and then was rushed by galloping horsemen to the market in Edo and was sold for a high price. Basho wrote:
鎌倉を生きて出でけん初鰹
You made it
past Kamakura alive -
the first katsu bonito
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)