Jukōdō Yoshikuni (寿好堂よし国) (artist )
Kataoka Ichizō I (一代目片岡市蔵) as Tokko no Daroku (とっこノ駄六) in Ono no Tōfū aoyagi suzuri (Ono no Tōfū, the Inkstone and Green Willow Tree - 小野道風青柳硯)
ca 05/1828
10.125 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signature: Jukōdō Yoshikuni ga (壽好堂よし國画)
Publisher: Kichi (吉) (Marks U140 seal 06-112)
John Fiorillo gives us a synopsis of the tale related to this print which is the right half of a diptych:
"Yoshikuni’s diptych combines vestiges of early Kamigata portraiture with the greater fluidity of the later ōban style. The theatrical tale offers a fanciful retelling of events involving the legendary calligrapher Ono no Tôfû [Michikaze] (894-966: 小野の道風) during the reign of the Emperor Yôzei (868-944). The historical Tôfû, grandson of a courtier-poet, Ono no Takamura, was a government official, poet, and calligrapher. In the latter capacity, he served three emperors and is considered one of the Sanseki (Three Brush Traces: 三跡), Japan's three greatest calligraphers. In Japanese legend and art, Tôfû is particularly well known as the figure who takes inspiration from a frog who attempted seven times to leap from a pond to an overhanging willow branch until finally reaching his perch on his eighth attempt. Likewise, Tôfû had tried seven times to win a higher post in the imperial court, and so he took the frog's perseverence [sic] as a sign that he, too, should try yet another time, for which he was rewarded. In this particular scene, Daroku is an ally of Tachibana Hayanari, an enemy of the emperor, who plots to take over the country. The two fight and Tôfû tosses Daroku into the pond. However, in the end, Daroku and Tôfû become allies and help to foil the conspiracy."
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Another version of the Ono no Tōfū story
In Japanese Treasure Tales by Kumasaku Tomita and published by Yamanaka & Company in 1906, it says on pages 8-10 - dated to 928 A.D.: "Tōfū, the subject of our little story, was a man of birth and position in Japan, but his writing was very shockingly bad, and he reached the age of sixty years before it had emerged from, as it were, the pothooks and hangers of childhood. He had, however, the grace to be thoroughly ashamed of it. One day in spring, after a shower, he went out for a walk in a suburb of Kyōto, and, coming to a place in the road where a willow tree grew, one of the branches of which hung down to within a short distance of the ground, his attention was attracted by a frog which was endeavouring to jump from ground on to this pendant branch. By jumping vigorously the frog could just touch the branch but being unable to obtain a foothold necessarily fell down each time it tried. Again and again the attempt was made, in vain; until, exhausted with its efforts, the panting frog appeared to give up the struggle, and indeed Tōfū watching concluded that it had done so. But after resting for a time, the frog again began jumping in a still more determined manner, and after countless failures at length secured a foothold and and made its way up the tree as if proud of its success . Tōfu was much impressed by the frogs exploit, and regarding the encounter as a lesson for himself, determined to make equally resolute efforts to learn to write properly. In this determination, like the frog, he so persevered that after a few years he not only acquired proficiency, but became very famous as the best writer in Japan.Later in life, when he was quite an old man, the Emperor Daigo Tenno commissioned him to write the names on a series of portraits of sages and heroes, which had been painted by a very skilful artist, Kose Kanaoka, on the shoji of the Shishinden or Throne Room of the palace. "
"The Japanese consider that our hero , Sangi Sari , and Dainagon Gyozei, who both lived after him, are the three greatest experts in caligraphy [sic] known to history."
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Performed at the Inaba no Shibai, Kyoto (因幡薬師京都).
The right sheet of a diptych; the left sheet depicts Sawamura Gennosuke II (沢村源之助) as Ono no Tofu (小野道風). Hendrick Lühl has the complete diptych and says the date is 5/1828 of a performance at the Wakadayû (若太夫) in Osaka (大坂).
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The play Ono no Tofū [sic], the Inkstone, and the Green Willow Tree (小野道風青柳硯)was written by Takdea [sic] Izumo I, Chikamatsu Hanji, Miyoshi Shōraku, and three others as a ningyō jōruri premiered in 1754 at the Takemoto no shibai in Osaka. "[In a} dramatization [it] depicts Tōfū as an illiterate carpenter reared as a commoner (the result of a crime committed by his father, an exiled imperial councilor). Tōfū works at the imperial palace, where he is promoted to courtier. A enemy of the emperor, Tachibana Hayanari, plots to take over the country. One day, Tôfû observes frogs leaping among willow branches in a temple pond, which he interprets as a sign that the emperor is in danger from Hayanari. When Dotsoku no Daroku, an ally of Hayanari's, attempts to recruit Tōfū into the conspiracy, Tōfū pretends to accept after the two fight and Tôfû tosses Daroku into the pond. When Tôfû is asked to sign a written affirmation of his loyalty to the planned usurpation of the throne, the illiterate Tôfû is able to do so only through a miracle initiated by his nurse Horinni, who sacrifices herself and dips a brush in her blood. In the end, Tôfû and his allies (including Daroku, who switches sides and helps to hide the emperor) defeat Hayanari and his co-conspirators."
The quote and source of this information is from osakaprints.com.
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Illustrated in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, page 134, no. 122 (Haber Collection). Schwaab wrote: "The legend of Ono no Tōfū, a great tenth-century calligrapher and statesman, concerns his early efforts at obtaining promotion. Having failed to advance for the seventh time, Ono no Tōfū gave up, but on his way from the palace he noticed a small frog attempting to reach the branch of a willow. the small amphibian failed seven times but on the eighth, succeeded. Taking this as a sign, the scholar was encouraged to try again and went on to be very successful. In the kabuki play illustrated here, On no Tōfū is translated into a poor and illiterate son of a scholar laboring at eh palace. The sight of the frog gives him both insight into a political intrigue and the ability to read and write. Daroku, a retainer of the usurper, rushes out to try to draw Ono no Tōfū into the plot. Ultimately the two men become allies in defeating the villains..." [The description here is to a variant diptych by Gatōken Shunshi, Schwaab #121.]
Kataoka Ichizō I (初代片岡市蔵: from 1810 to 10/1858 and again 10/1859 to 5/1862) (actor)