Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)

Ichikawa Ebijūrō I as Tōken (China Dog) Jūbei (市川鰕十郎の唐犬重兵衛) from the play Benimurasaki Aide Someage ('Red and Purple, Rich Dyes of Osaka') [紅紫大坂潤]

Print

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Date:ca 1822
Dimensions:10.25 in x 14.6 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Artist's seal: Hokushū
Links The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Honolulu Museum of Art
Chiba City Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art - blue ground
Hankyu Culture Foundation - blue ground
Cleveland Museum of Art
Lyon Collection - Hokushū diptych with young figures wearing sasabeni lip gloss
Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi Description:This is one of those prints that startles the viewer. You don't have to be a lover of Japanese prints. You don't even have to know anything about them. You don't have to know who the artist was or the sitter or the meaning of his costume or why his eyes are crossed. All you have to do is take one look and know the power and the magic that this artist created.

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The actor Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (1777-1827) played the role of Tōken [China Dog] Jūbei in the kabuki drama Benimurasaki aide someage [Red and Purple, Rich Dyes of Osaka] only once, in Osaka at the Kado Theater in the 8th month of 1816. However, this print was actually published around the spring of 1822 as part of a series of bust-length portraits ( ōkubi-e, “large head”) on bright yellow backgrounds. There are at least five versions of this eye-catching design with various combinations of inscribed artisan names and publisher marks, the last printed with a blue ground. This impression appears to represent the third state, lacking the original actor’s name and role, as well as the carver’s seal that were at the upper right.

The poem by Hōrai Sanjin seen above reads:

Even Saohime, Goddess of Spring
cannot help but be won over
by the "prawn," Ebijūrō,
the pièce-de-résistance
of the New Year's offering
in this fine spring season.

Saohime mo
nabiki ya suran
hōrai no
ebi wa rippa na
haru no hanagata

Translated by John T. Carpenter, Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860. (New York: Asia Society and Japanese Art Society, 2008), 211.

John Carpenter wrote: "Hōrai, the traditional abode of the immortals in East Asian mythology, is also an alternative name for the decorative arrangement (kuitumi) of various comestibles prepared for the New Year, which are consumed by guests one by one, until only a large prawn, the impressive ingredient, remains. Hanagata in the last line means both "star piece" and "kabuki star," suggesting that the ebi, or "prawn," referring to Ebijūrō, excels in a New Year's performance. The poem on the original print, therefore, made it suitable for reissue as a New Year's greeting card, independent of the original perormance it commemorated in 1816. The poet's pen name literally means "Recluse of the Abode Immortals.

The inscription reads:

佐保姫も
なひきや
すらん
蓬莱の
ゑひは立派な
春の花かた

　 宝来山人

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If you click on this print and enlarge it you will notice that Tōken (China Dog) Jūbei has a green lower lip. This was a fashion craze early in the nineteenth century, but finding it on a male figure is rare. However, it also appears on the lower lip of a young man, Koganosuke, in a Hokushū diptych also in the Lyon Collection. See the link to #11.

The green comes from sasabeni (笹紅), a safflower product, that was terribly expensive. When layered on the lower lip it would transform from red to green and would often have an iridescent glow.

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Hokushū was known as a great portraitist who had been the pupil of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), artist of the world-renowned woodcut, The Great Wave. In turn, he took on many students of his own such as Hokuei, Shunkei, and Shunshi, all included in this exhibition.

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Illustrated:

1) in color in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in the Collection of Chiba City Museum of Art (千葉市 美術館 所蔵 浮世絵　作品選 - Chiba-shi Bijutsukan shozō ukiyoe sakuhinsen), 2001, p. 81, #193.

2) a full-page color reproduction in Gems of the floating world : ukiyo-e prints from the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett by Rose Hempel, Japan Society, 1995, pp. 118-119.

Hempel gives us a different translation of the inscription on this print.

Even the goddess of spring
might be tempted:
the prawn (ebi) of the island of the immortals
is the greatest actor of spring!

She also tells us the Roger Keyes has identified four different editions of this print. The one is Dresden has a plain background, while the one here in the Lyon Collection has a yellow ground. There is also one with a blue ground. (See the links above.)

3) In a full page black and white reproduction in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, #21, p. 83.

Keyes wrote on page 82: " "China Dog" Jūbei was the trusted lieutenant of Banzui Chōbei, the famous Edo otokodate, and was responsible for Chōbei's family after his anticipated death at the hands of a vicious nobleman."

Keyes added: "There are at least four states of the print. The first has a yellow ground, the full name of the actor, the role, and the name of the engraver, Kasuke... The second has a yellow ground, the name of the role, and the first two characters of the actor's name, "Ichikawa," in the upper right corner.... The third state has a yellow ground, but lacks the names upper right.... [like this one in the Lyon Collection]. The fourth state... has a blue ground, lacks the names in the upper right, and has the poem and signature in silver."

4) in color in Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860, edited by Julia Meech and Jane Oliver, entry by John Carpenter, p. 211.

5) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, #39, p. 81.

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Another copy of this print can be found in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden.

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In an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination', expected to run from July 24, 2019 to September 20, 2020, is the Met's copy of this print.
Related entities Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (初代市川鰕十郎 9/1815 to 7/1827) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
ōkubi-e (大首絵) (genre)

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