Shunbaisai Hokuei (春梅斎北英) (artist )
Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akogi Heiji (あこぎ平次) from the series Tōsei keshōkagami (当世化粧鏡)
08/07/1830
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Shunbaisai Hokuei ga
春梅斎北英画
Publisher: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123 - seal 27-035)
Carver: Hori Kuma
Printer: suri Toyo (摺豐)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Waseda University
Waseda University - Akogi Heiji print from the 100 poets series
Kabuki21 - summary of the play Seishū Akogi-ga-Ura
Fujisawa Ukiyo-e Museum - 1852 Toyokuni III print of this figure
Google Maps - Ise Bay
Hankyu Culture Foundation Some background for Akogi Heiji
In The Hundred Poets Compared: A Print Series by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige and Kunisada by Henk Herwig and Johsua Mostow there is a Kuniyoshi print which focuses on the study of Akogi Heiji. It says on page 176:
The story of the fisherman Heiji is based on a legend about the poaching of fish on forbidden grounds. It was dramatized first as the Noh play Akogi and later several versions were produced for the puppet and Kabuki stage.****
Heiji's mother has been ill for a long period. The doctor tells him that the only way to cure his mother is to catch a rare fish called a yagara, which can only be found in Akogi Bay. Fishing there is prohibited because it is a preserve of the Grand Ise Shrine of Ise. Nevertheless, Heiji casts his net into the bay, but instead of a yagara he brings up a precious sword. At that moment Heiji is discovered by another poacher, Jirozō, who beats wooden clappers to sound the alarm on the discovery of a poacher. In the ensuing struggle, Heiji manages to escape but his straw raincoat and sedge hat remain in the hands of Jirozō. Before long the local magistrate comes to Heiji's house to arrest him, but when Heiji offers to surrender himself, Jirozō interferes, stating that it was he who was the offender. As evidence he shows the sedge hat bearing two Chinese characters 'hei' and 'ji', saying that they do not represent Heiji's name but are the initials of Jirozō's family name, 'Hiragawa', (the character for 'hira' can also be read as 'hei' and his given name is 'Jirozō'. The magistrate accepts this self-sacrificing interpretation, clearing the way for Heiji to return the imperial sword to his former master, General Tamura, in Kyoto.
Arashi Rikan II as Akogi Heiji commemorates a scene from the play Seishū Akogi-ga-ura (勢州阿漕浦). This is the last of a series of roundel bust portraits designed by Hokuei between 1833 and 1835. (another in the series). Each print in the series bears the title 'Contemporary Make-up Mirrors'.
No one seems to agree on the exact date of this print. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston gives it as the 8th month of 1830. Their dating follows Matsudaira's in Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei , vol. 2 (1998), #263 which gives an even more precise date of 1830, 8 month, 7th day. The Metropolitan Museum gives 1835. Waseda University gives the 5th month of 1834. Between the third and ninth months of 1835, Rikan was apparently on tour. This print might have been issued to commemorate either his departure from or return to Osaka, but the print itself depicts a performance that was actually given in Nagoya in the sixth month'.
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Illustrated in:
1) Stars from the Stage in Osaka: Early 19th-century Japanese Kabuki by Matthi Forrer, p. 64, accompanied by a large black and white illustration. The is also a large color illustration on page 33.
2) Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, #167, p.169.
3) Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 2, Osaka, 1998, no 263.
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There was a 1922 silent film entitled Akogi Heiji.
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.
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
Arashi Rikan II (二代目嵐璃寛: 9/1828 - 6/1837) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)