Ryūsai Shigeharu (柳斎重春) (artist 1802 – 1852)

Nakamura Utaemon III as Jiraiya in the play Yaemusubi Jiraiya Monogatari [柵自来也談]

Print

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Date:08/1832
Dimensions:10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ryūsai Shigeharu ga
柳斎重春画
Carver: Sumimato Hori Kasuke
Links The Achenbach Foundation - identifies Nakamura III as Ichikawa Goemon
Waseda University - 2 copies, 1 with an artist's seal, 1 without - identifies Nakamura III as Jiraiya
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum - identifies Nakamura III as Jiraiya
Jordan Schnitzler Museum of Art - anonymous loan - identifies Nakamura III as Ishikawa Goemon
Philadelphia Museum of Art - identifies Nakamura III as Jiraiya
Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena - identifies Nakamura III as Jiraiya
Kobe City Museum - identifies Nakamura III as Jiraiya
Victoria and Albert Museum Description:Art historical mistakes are often accepted and repeated... until they aren't

Roger Keyes identified the main figure in this print as Nakamura Utaemon III as Ishikawa Goemon holding a child. Most Japanese sources say that it is indeed Nakamura Utaemon III, but not as Goemon, but rather as Jiraiya. In this case we side with the Japanese attribution. If they are correct then museums and collectors need to correct their files.

Keyes was a great connoisseur, scholar and enthusiast, but everyone makes a mistake at one time or another. A famous museum director once said: "Any curator or director who ever said he never made a mistake is either a fool or a liar."

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Roger Keyes in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints wrote on page 128 - with a full page color reproduction on page 129:

"For the production of a play on the subject of Ishikawa Goemon in the spring of 1833, Nakamura Utaemon III, the actor who played the role of the outlaw, especially commissioned a new episode from the playwright Nishizawa Ippō. A courtesan gives birth to a child, but abandons it to his father, Kanō Shirojirō, in order to become the mistress of a wealthy lord. The father wanders through a snowy night, and the family is eventually reunited. Goemon is not mentioned in the subplot but only one baby appeared in the play. Why the bandit chief should be standing in a mountain pass at the head of his entire gang, holding the child, is unclear. The poem printed in silver at the upper left is faint and undecipherable.

This surimono-style ōban engraved by Kasuke is possibly from [a] set published in 1833...

Painters of the Shijō and related schools in Osaka and Kyoto were avid designers of surimono. Their engravers and printers evolved a number of conventions and technical mannerisms to reproduce the painterly style. The conventions that were developed for the Shijō surimono were used with great effect in ōban portriats of actors like this... The Shijō-style background of the present print reveals a sense of humor seldom seen in prints of the Osaka school." This print is illustrated in a full-page display on the next page.

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The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum's information on this print does not agree with that of Roger Keyes. It says that the actor is Nakamura Utaemon, but that the main character is Jiraiya and not Goemon. On top of that they give a different title for this play - something which the records at Waseda University agree with. They also say that the print was published in 1832.

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum gives a reading of the text printed in silver in the upper left:

春の香は残らぬ梅のもみち哉（春の梅花は高貴な香を残すが、同じ紅色でももみじでは香らない。）梅玉

They also appear to give the poets name as Baigyoku.

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In Japanese Fairy World by William Elliot Griffis from 1887 there is a summary of the Jiraiya story. "Ogata was the name of a castle-lord who lived in the Island of the Nine Provinces, (Kiushiu). He had but one son, an infant, whom the people in admiration nicknamed Jiraiya (Young Thunder.) During one of the civil wars, this castle was taken, and Ogata was slain; but by the aid of a faithful retainer, who hid Jiraiya in his bosom, the boy escaped and fled northward to Echigo. There he lived until he grew up to manhood."

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Illustrated:

1) in color in a full-page reproduction in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 127, #293.

2) in a small black and white reproduction in The Male Journey in Japanese Prints by Roger Keyes, University of California Press, 1989, fig. 28, p. 14. It should be noted that here Keyes identifies Utaemon III as the main figure, but does not say whether he is Ishikawa Goemon or Jiraiya. He refers to him as "...a renegade nobleman holding his infant son."

3) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections 5: Victoria and Albert Museum II, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, Kodansha, 1989, page 96, #109.

4) in a full-page reproduction in color in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, page 129.

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The artist's seal on one of the copies at Waseda University is different than the one on the copy in the Lyon Collection. The artist's seal on the copies in the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are the same as the one shown here.

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There is another copy of this print in the Worcester Art Museum.
Related entities Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Jiraiya (自来也) (role)

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