Natori Shunsen (名取春仙) (artist 1886 – 1960)

Kataoka Nizaemon XI [片岡仁左衛門] as Kakogawa Honzō [九段目本蔵] from Act 9 of the Chūshingura from the series Portraits of Male Actors in Various Roles [Shunsen Nigao-e Shū 創作版画 春仙似顔集]

Print

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Date:1926
Dimensions:10.5 in x 15.75 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Kachijōsai Shunsen ga
梶蔦斎春仙画
Seal: Shun
Publisher's seal: Watanabe-kō (渡辺工)
Artist's seal in lower left margin: Natori
Links Harvard Art Museums
Waseda University
National Gallery of Australia
Honolulu Museum of Art
Chazen Museum of Art
Ako City Museum of History (via Ritsumeikan University)
Toledo Museum of Art Description:"Shunsen's actor prints include three portraits of characters from The Treasury of the loyal retainers. The image of the highly respected actor Kataoka Nizaemon XI as Honzō is a particularly fine print, with mica-flecked background and superb embossing. It presents the elderly samurai, reviled for his conservative approach to honourable samurai conflicts. In profile as he prepares to die at the hands of his daughter's fiancé."

Quoted from: Stars of the Tokyo Stage, p. 82. (JSV)

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Click on this print to enlarge it and then look closely at the black fabric at his right shoulder. You will notice that it is a black on black decoration of flying cranes among clouds. It is masterfully printed. Horizontally stripped blue lines surround the brown designs of tigers. The fact that these fierce and yet somewhat whimsical animals populate this design is appropriate attire for such a menacing figure as Honzō.

A shakuhachi protrudes into the image in the front left foreground. Behind Honzō is a partial view of a sedge hat he would have worn to disguise his identity. (JSV)

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This print is from an edition of 150.

Kakogawa Honzō is a figure from the Kanadehon Chūshingura ('Copybook of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers': 仮名手本忠臣蔵). Honzō is described as 'wise and moderate', but he is the retainer of 'the impetuous Wakasanosuke'.

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Illustrated:

1. In color in Stars of the Tokyo Stage by Lucie Folan, et al., National Gallery of Australia, 2012, p. 79.

2. In a small black and white reproduction in Modern Japanese Prints by Dorothy Blair, #138.

3. In color reproduction in Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, p. 184. This book says the signature reads: Bichōsai Shunsen. This differs from what other authors say.

4. This print graces the cover of Andon 38, September, 1991.

Robert Schaap wrote on page 70:

Against a superb silver mica ground Shunsen portrays the actor Kataoka Nizaemon in the role of Kakogawa Honzó. It is a quiet, rather stylized halflength actorportrait [sic], whose impact is here enhanced by the careful printing that is so characteristic for many shin hanga pints. As Helen Merritt writes, his prints give the impression that he was interested in the personalities and human qualities of the characters. A statement which is certainly true for this portrait, to me one of the finest from the series.

Honzó, an entirely fictitious character, is seen here en profile wearing the komuso (mendicant priest) disguise with shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and wide wicker travelling-hat in which he appears in act IX of the play.

5. In color in Heroes of the Kabuki Stage by Arendie and Henk Herwig, Hotei Publishing, 2004, #16.16, page 191.

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There is another copy of this print in the Pacific Art Museum.
Related entities actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kataoka Nizaemon XI (十一代目片岡仁左衛門) (actor)
Watanabe Mokuhan Bujitsu Gahō (渡邊木版美術画舗) (publisher)
modern prints (shin hanga - 新版画) (genre)
Chūshingura (忠臣蔵 - 47 Rōnin) (genre)

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