Shunbaisai Hokuei (春梅斎北英) (artist )
Nakamura Shikan II as the fox Genkurō impersonating Satō Tadanobu in the play Hanayagura hitome senbon (花櫓詠吉野 - 'One Thousand Fragrances in the Flower Tower'}
05/1835
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Color woodblock print with silver pigment and embossing on paper; ōban
Signed: Shunbaisai Hokuei ga
春梅斎北英画
Artist's seals: Hokuei and
Fumoto no yuki 'Plum in the Foothills'
Publisher: Kinkadō Konishi (Tenki)
(Marks 242 - seal 24-088)
Carver: hori Kuma
Printer: suri Toyo
Waseda University
Victoria and Albert Museum
The National Museum of Asian Art
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes - posted at commons.wikimedia
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Philadelphia Museum of Art This scene is from a play that was derived from another play, Yoshitsune senbon zakura (Yoshitsune and the thousand cherry trees: 義経千本桜). In it is the real Tadanobu (忠信), a faithful friend of Yoshtsune and the faux-Tadanobu in the form of a shape-shifting fox both appear. Yoshitsune sends the fox-Tadanobu off to protect his mistress Shizuka Gozen who is in mortal danger, not knowing that this Tadanobu is an impostor. Yoshitsune had given Shizuka a special drum which was made from the skins of the fox-Tadanobu’s parents. When she plays the drum this Tadanobu cannot restrain himself and does a special dance, thus revealing his true fox nature. As a reward for saving Shizuka the fox is given the drum and he flies away.
This Hokuei print shows the fox in armor - a suit of Yoshitsune’s armor that he was given to trick the owner’s enemies. You can see the elements of this armor in this incredibly elaborate costume. The three free floating flames are an indication of the supernatural nature of this scene. The flames could be categorized either as kitsunebi (狐火), foxfires, or hitodama (人魂), the flames of deceased souls.
It should be no surprise that figure of the fox Genkurō is accompanied by three floating flames in this print. Foxes were thought to be shapeshifters and would often be seen with shinka (神火) which are sacred/soul flames. The last print in the 1857 Hiroshige series of 100 Famous Views of Edo shows a gathering of foxes near the Shozokuenoki Tree at Oji on New Year's Eve. Each of the many foxes are accompanied by this mysterious flame. Mikhail Uspensky wrote of this scene: "Their poses are solemn, their movements gracious and restrained. They are carrying out their main ritual of the year and preparing to assume the guise of noble ladies." (Click on the attached jpeg to the left of this print from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)
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Cory Sherman North wrote: "In Japanese lore, fox-spirits are able to assume human form and maintain close relationships with people for certain periods of time. “Fox-fires” (kitsu-nebi) such as the three seen here in the top section, always indicate something supernatural going on. In this instance, a popular kabuki dance scene from the play, Hanayagura hitome senbon (Thousand Glances from the Flower-viewing Point), captures a moment in Act 2 when a fox disguised as the loyal samurai retainer Tadanobu begins transforming during a shrine’s drum-playing celebration, where it involuntarily dances its way back into a fox. The actor is shown dressed in samurai armour and holding a horse’s saddle, while he performs a kitsune roppō (fox in six directions). Roppō is the term for a dynamic, explosive dance in kabuki theater. The six directions refer to north, south, east, west, and also heaven and earth, so the description characterizes dance movements so expansive they must contain all the directions in the world. After being recognized as a true hero in subsequent scenes, the fox does return to the animal world.
The actor Nakamura Shikan II (1798-1852) performed this fox role at the Naka Theater in Osaka during the 5th month of 1835. He was famous for his large, imposing good looks as well as his dancing skills and was billed as an all-around actor, a sort of “man of a thousand faces.” This luxury print’s portrayal of Shikan II is one of the artist’s most sought-after prints, among an oeuvre almost exclusively dedicated to full-length figures of actors in their famous roles."
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The curatorial notes from the Victoria and Albert Museum read: "As evidenced in this work by the early 19th-century artist Hokuei, dramatic power and energy characterised the theatrical prints of Osaka. This particular design depicts the end of the Fushimi-Inari Shrine scene in Act 2 of a play staged at the Naka-za Theatre in Osaka in May 1835. The play seems to have been a version of the highly popular Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and the 1,000 Cherry Trees). Yoshitsune parts with Lady Shizuka at the shrine and leaves with his party. A sorrowful Lady Shizuka leaves the stage, and finally Nakamura Shikan II as Tadanobu makes his exit by the hanamichi (walkway). Tadanobu here is actually a fox who will loyally accompany Lady Shizuka to Mt Yoshino."
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The actor's robe is decorated with the 'Genji-wheel' or Genji-guruma (源氏車) 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).".
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Illustrated:
1. In Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 2, Osaka, 1998, no. 352.
2. In color in Impressions of Ukiyo-e by Dora Amsden and Woldemar von Seidlitz, 2007, p 34.
3. In color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 124, #287.
4. In a small black and white image in Masterpieces of Japanese Prints: The European Collections - Ukiyo-e from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kodansha International, 1991, p.33 and in color on page 132.
5. In a full-page color reproduction in Japanese Prints by Catherine David, 2010, Éditions Place des Victoires, p. 289.
6. A close up detail of this print appears on the cover of Stars from the Stage in Osaka: Early 19th-century Japanese kabuki prints by Matthi Forrer. It is illustrated in a full-page color reproduction on page 36 and again in black and white on page 65 with the accompanying text.
7. In a full-page color reproduction in Impressions, no. 20, 1998, pl. 8.
8. In color in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collection 5: Victoria and Albert Museum II, Kodansha, 1989, #165.
9. In a small black and white reproduction in Andon 47, March, 1994, p. 103.
10. In a small color reproduction in Heroes of the Kabuki Stage by Arendie and Henk Herwig, Hotei Publishing, 2004, #71, page 73.
11. In color in Hokuei: Master of Osaka Kabuki Prints by John Fiorillo, Ludion, 2024, cat. 190, page 111. There is another small color reproduction on page 188 accompanied with fuller information. For example, he gave Fumoto no yuki as ふもとのゆき; Kinkadō Konishi as 金花堂小西; Tenki as 天喜; hori Kuma as ほりくま (Kumazō 熊造); suri Toyo as すりとよ (Toyosaburō 豊三良).
Fiorillo noted on page 110 that: "...Hanayagura hitome senbon was written as a puppet play by Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku, and Namiki Sōsuke. It was first performed in 1747 at Osaka's Takemoto Theater. The play adapted episodes from various tales about the war between the Heike (Taira) and Genji (Minamoto)."
Later the author wrote: "Hokuei portrayed Kitsune (Fox) Tadanobu performing a dance called "Fox in Six Directions" (kitsune roppō) on the stage walkway as spirit fires flicker. Roppō was a dynamic, swaggering, and explosive dance. The actor's movements are agitated as he jumps about or crouches to mime the movements of a wild animal; his voice is high pitched and erratically modulated. The actor will sometimes put his hands in the "fox paws" position, a gesture depicted in some ukiyo-e prints."
"The scene is infused with an unsettling duality, the thrilling realism of the hero's humanlike actions mingling with the imaginary fox world. Kabuki audiences have always found this scene wondrous and otherworldly, a fantasy that Hokuei has captured brilliantly."
"Deluxe and ordinary printings of this work are known."
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kinkadō Konishi (金花堂小西) (publisher)
Nakamura Shikan II (二代目中村芝翫: 11/1825 - 12/1835) (actor)
Shizuka gozen (静御前) (role)