Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Bandō Shūka I (坂東しうか) as Kijin no Omatsu (鬼神おまつ), the Demon God, and Ichikawa Danjurō VIII (市川団十郎) as Natsume Shirōsaburō (夏目四郎三郎) holding their child - from the play Shinpan Koshi no Shiranami (新板越白浪 ) performed with Genji moyō furisode hinagata (源氏模様娘雛形)
09/1851
10 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Ibaya Kyūbei (Marks 126 - seal 11-005)
Seal: shita-uri or 'discreet sale' (シタ売)
Censors' seals: Kinugasa and Murata
British Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library
National Diet Library
Philadelphia Museum of Art - 1886 Yoshitoshi diptych of Kijin no Omatsu killing Shirosaburō
Lyon Collection - a Kunisada triptych related to the same play performance This play is sometimes called 'Kijin no Omatsu'. It is "...based on a popular tale sung during the early nineteenth century to a street entertainer's music called chongare bushi. The ballad told of how a wandering samurai was taken in by a beautiful female bandit whom she met at Kasamatsu Pass in Echigo, and whose traveling companion he became until, while crossing the Tani River, she stabbed him to death."
Quoted from: New Kabuki Encyclopedia, edited by Samuel L. Leiter, p. 589.
[Click on the link shown above to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see Yoshitoshi's rendition of this event.]
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In Beauty and Violence: japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 it say of the diptych in Philadelphia: "Omatsu... is at the centre of a number of thrilling but quite contradictory stories. In a number of these tales, there are recurring elements: Omatsu disguises herself as a man; she is head of or a member of a gang of highwaymen, she is looking for or in possession of Kishinmaru, a prized sword. Shirōsaburō is her blind samurai husband in one story, while in another her father's murderer."
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This image commemorates a performance of the play Shinpan koshi no shiranami (新板越白浪 ) performed at the Ichimura theatre in 1851/9.
ex B. W. Robinson collection ex C. H. Mitchell collection - skeleton kimono design.
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"Interestingly, this work has a shita-uri (literally, 'low sale') seal which indicates that it was on a restricted sale (supposedly sold from a pile on the floor) in order to avoid problems with the authorities. Kuniyoshi made several other prints depicting Ōmatsu... of which at least one other also bears a shita-uri seal."
Quoted from: Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861, p. 173. It is accompanied with a color reproduction.
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The term shita-uri as a special meaning according to Sarah Thompson in Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints in describing a multi-panel composition on pages 52-53: "A further concession to the reform laws, the print bears a special seal on each sheet reading shitauri, or "selling below," indicating that it could be sold only from the counter and not hung up for display at the front of the store."
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There appear to have been several editions of this print. We know that by comparing the images from different museum collections. One thing that jumped out at us is that parts of this example in the Lyon Collection appears to have blind printing in the white areas of the skulls, bones and the white lining on the inner robe, which also displays a linked manji or swastika motif. On the other hand, examples like those in the British Museum and the National Diet Library show no blind printing. In our thinking that would make the Lyon Collection print from an earlier edition.
Ibaya Kyūbei (伊場屋久兵衛) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Bandō Shūka I (初代坂東しうか: from 11/1839 to 11/1854) (actor)
Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎: 3/1832 - 6/8/1854) (actor)