Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)
Arashi Kitsusaburō I (嵐橘三郎) as Hyōgonokami Yorimasa (兵庫頭頼政) in the play Yorimasa Nue Monogatari (頼政鵺物語) - a memorial print
08/1821
10.25 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Publisher: Toshikuraya Shinbei (Marks 539 - seal 25-553)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - blue-ground with no publisher's seal
Waseda University - with blue background and no publisher's seal
Tokyo Metropolitan Library - blue ground with no publisher's seal
National Museum of Asian Art - like the copy in the Lyon Collection, but with no publisher's seal
Hankyu Culture Foundation - like the Lyon Collection copy, but with no publisher's seal
British Museum - like the Lyon Collection copy, but with no publisher's seal
Victoria and Albert Museum
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University - like the Lyon Collection copy, but with no publisher's seal
Victoria and Albert Museum - blue-ground copy without a publisher's seal Against a grey ground the actor Arashi Kitsusaburō I as Hyogonokami Yorimasa holding a bow and arrow in the play 'Yorimasa Nue Monogatari' performed at the Hori-e Theatre in 8/1821. It would seem that Arashi Kitsusaburō I must have been ill during most of the first half of 1821, for there is no mention of any performance between the New Year and this date. The actor began playing this role on the second day of the month, but by the 11th, he had fallen ill again. Makamura Itcho stood in for him, but on the 12th Kitsusaburō could still not continue; he withdrew from the production on the 13th. He rested at the theater until the 19th, returning home by boat that evening. On the morning of the 26th he died. Many of the memorial prints issued following his death portray the actor in this role, including one by Hokushū. This print, however, makes no mention of his death and was probably issued before his illness, unwittingly memorializing the actor's last role.
His garments are highly decorated with the sasarindō motif of the Minamoto clan. The Arashi tachibana or mandarin orange crest appears at the bottom of his robes.
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The only other linked print on this page that shows the publisher's seal, as in this one, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It, like many of the others, appears to be a deluxe edition. The V & A also has a blue-ground copy of this print, but one without the publisher's seal.
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There are four other prints in the Lyon Collection which deal with the theme of Yorimasa's slaying of the nue: #200, a triptych by Kuniyoshi; #584 by Shunshi; #909 by Kuniyoshi; and #1170 by Ashiyuki.
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The story of the slaying of the nue appears in Book 4, Section 15 - 'The Nightbird' - of The Tale of Heike. The emperor has been disturbed by nightmares and it was thought that these must have a physical manifestation. So, Yorimasa is called in to slay the monster which is causing these nightly disturbances. Below is the translation provided by Royall Tyler:
At the hour foreseen for His Majesty's torment, a black cloud moved, as those who knew said it would, from toward the grove at Tōsanjō, then settled over where the emperor lay. Yorimasa, glancing up sharply, saw iin it a strange shape. He knew he was finished if he missed.
Nonetheless he took an arrow,****
fitted it carefully to the string,
called in the secret depths of his heart,
"Hail, Great Bodhisattva Hachiman!,"
drew to the full, and let fly.
He had a hit; his arm felt it.
"Got him!" He gave the archer's yell.
I no Hayata swiftly approached,
found where the thing had fallen,
and ran it through nine times with his sword
Everyone there brought up light
for a good look at whatever it was:
a monkey's head, a badger's body,
a snake's tail, the limbs of a tiger,
and a cry like that of a thrush.
"Frightening" is hardly the word.
There is another copy of this print in the Valtion Taidemuseo (The Finnish National Gallery).
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 1, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka 1997, page 39, no. 101.
2) in color in 'Representing rivalry and transition in kabuki. Arashi Kichisaburō versus Nakamura Utaemon III' by C. Andrew Gerstle in Andon October 2002, p. 57.
3) in color in Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage 1780-1830 by C. Andrew Gerstle, University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, page 220, #200. The text reads: "Rikan fell ill during this performance and died a month later, on the twenty-seventh day of the ninth month, 1821. Two states of the print are known: one with just the role given, implying that the actor was still alive (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery...); and the other with the added inscription, seen here, that reads 'the last performance of his life' (shōgai o-nagori kyōgen). This was obviously sold as a memorial print."
4) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, page 77, #34. Trimmed somewhat at the bottom, left and right sides.
Toshikuraya Shinbei (利倉屋新兵衛) (publisher)
Arashi Kitsusaburō I (初代嵐橘三郎: from 1/1821 to 9/26/1821) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Minamoto Yorimasa (源頼政) (role)
shini-e (死絵) (genre)