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

Nakamura Shikan II and Nakamura Baika I [中村梅花] as the Six Immortal Poets in the dance play Rokkasen Sugata no Saishiki

Print

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Date:01/1834
Dimensions:9.5 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ryūsai Shigeharu ga
柳斎重春画
Carver's seal: Kasuke
Links Tokyo Metropolitan Library
British Museum
Hankyu Culture Foundation - a very similar 1827 composition by Yoshikuni
Lyon Collection - Kuniyoshi print of Sōjō Henjō by himself
Lyon Collection - another Shigeharu print showing two of these poets
Philadelphia Museum of Art Description:This print commemorates a performance at the Kado Theater 1834/1. "The first dance play of quick changes on this theme was performed in 1789, and it remains a popular part of the kabuki repertoire today. The music for this was written and performed by Takemoto Miyodhidayū and was particularly praised at the time.

In the present version of the dance play on the theme, Narihira, Kuronushi, and the priest Henjō, all fall in love with the poetess Ono no Komachi and make poetic proposals, which she refuses. Kuronushi, piqued by his rejection, accuses Komachi of plagiarism during a poetry contest and presents a forged manuscript in a tub of ceremonial sake, while Bunya no Yasuhide and the priest Kisen merrily dance. Shikan performaed all four male roles in this performance and repeated them in Osaka in the spring of 1852, the last play performed before he died.

There are at least two versions of this print: the first witht he stamp of the engraver Kasuke, as here, the second lacking it. Shunbaisai Hokuei also designed a six-panel set of full-length portraits for the same performance... The inscription gives the name of the two actors and the six roles."

Quoted from: The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, p. 132 with a full-page illustration in black and white on page 133.

These figures are Nakamura Shikan (中村芝翫) as Sōjō Henjō (僧正遍正), Bunya no Yasuhide (文屋康秀), Ariwara no Narihira (在原業平), Kisen Hōshi (喜撰法師) and Ōtomo no Kuronushi (大伴黒主). Nakamura Baika (中村梅花) as Ono no Komachi (小野小町). The Six Immortal Poets lived during the Heian period. Two of these figures represent priests, Henjō and Hōshi, three courtiers and one lady.

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Illustrated:

1) in black and white in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 126, #292.

2) a full-page black and white reproduction in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, page 133.

3) in color in Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage 1780-1830 by C. Andrew Gerstle, University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, page 289. The text reads: "Shikan II plays all five male roles among the six famous classical poet; Baika (Matsue IV, 1814-35) plays the single female role (Komachi). Shikan II had returned from Edo in the last month of 1833, and here is being promoted as the successor to Utaemon III (Shikan I). Arashi Hinasuke I had first starred in this dance play in the fiver oles in one production. Shikan promotes the personae of elegant and cultivated courtier-poets."

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There are two prints by Shigeharu in the Lyon Collection which show Bunya no Yasuhide and Ariwara no Narihira. (See the link above.)
Related entities Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Nakamura Matsue IV (四代目中村松江: from 1/1835 to 2/15/1835) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Nakamura Shikan II (二代目中村芝翫: 11/1825 - 12/1835) (actor)
Ariwara Narihira (在原 業平: from 825 to 880) (author)

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