Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)

Arashi Kitsusaburō I (嵐橘三郎) as Sasaki Takatsuna (佐々木高綱) in the play Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata [近江源氏先陣館]

Print

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Date:01/1821
Dimensions:10.25 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Publisher: Honya Seishichi
(Marks 123 - seal 25-527)
The poem is by Ryūshakutei accompanied by his red seal.
Links Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - with a blue ground
British Museum
Library of Congress - with a blue ground
Waseda University
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Lyon Collection - Kuniyoshi triptych of the Battle of Uji River showing Takatsuna with his four square banner crest
Lyon Collection - Shibakuni hagoita portrait of Takatsuna showing the four square crest on his breastplate
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Lyon Collection - another copy of this print Description:"This powerful print is probably a memorial portrait. Like some of the other memorial prints of Kitsaburo it shows him in a role dating back several years.

The legendary Sasaki Takatsuna is shown here with a gun, behind which his crest is visible on the breast-plate. This crest is called 'Yotsume', or four hollow squares.

Takatsuna took a prominent part in the succesful campaign of Minamoto Noriyori against Kiso Yoshinaka in 1184."

Quoted from Ōsaka Kagami 大阪鏡 by Jan van Doesburg, p. 26.

Dean Schwaab noted that there is some confusion as to whether or not there was more than one edition of this print. Some have a blue ground, but he notes that the blue "usually disappears completely..."

Schwaab also notes that "This is one of the most splendid of Hokushu's portraits and is rarely found untrimmed and with color intact." He continued by saying that the one in his volume, Osaka Prints "...is the only impression I have seen retaining the fugitive pale-blue ground and the rose eye make-up."

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According to Andrew Gerstle in his Creating Celebrity: Poetry in Osaka Actor Surimono and Prints Arashi Rikan, aka Kitsusaburō I, was so offended by the crudeness and crassness of his chief rival, the Edoite Shikan, aka Nakamura Utaemon III, that he refused to permit poetry to be written on Osaka oban prints of his group - that is, until this image appeared.

Shikan was a master of self-promotion and his arrival in Edo in ca. 1815 led to the development of oban-sized prints accompanied by texts, mainly poems. Rikan did not relent to do such a thing until 1821 when he change his name to Kitsusaburō I. Not only that, either through persuasion or based on the respect that other Osaka actors had for Rikan, they avoided poetic inscriptions on their prints too.

"What might have caused Rikan to change his view and allow poems on ōban actor prints as in figure 11? Rikan’s passing on the name 'Kichisaburō' to his nephew, the son of his elder brother, and his creating the new stage name 'Kitsusaburō' in the first month of 1821 were decisive moves."

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The poetic text and signature reads: 高綱にあたる嵐の鳴子かな　竜尺亭

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Illustrated:

1) In a full-page black and white reproduction in Ōsaka Kagami 大阪鏡 by Jan van Doesburg, Huys den Esch, 1985, p. 27, no. 16.

2) In color in a full-page reproduction in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, p. 79, no. 36.

3) In color in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints) Volume 1, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka, 1997, no. 91.

4) In color in Schätze der Kamigata: Japanische Farbholzschnitte aus Osaka 1780-1880, MNHA (Musée national d'histoire et d'art Luxembourg), 2012, page 37, #49. The text reads:

"Das Blatt erschien zur Erinnerung an den berühmten Schauspieler Kitsusaburo I. kurz nach seinem Tode, Ende 9. Monat 1821, der diese Rolle mit besonderem Erfolg in dem Stück "Omi Genji Senjin Yakata" am 19./10./1811 im Osaka Kitashinchi Theater und am 18./11./1811 im Kyoto Shijo Südtheater spielte. Wie van allen Okubi-e Drucken des Hokushu gibt es auch von diesem Blatt mehrere Versionen, di späteren mit dem bläulichen Hintergrund sind an der stark abgenutzten Umrissplatte zu erkennen."

The Google translation is:

"The paper [i.e., this sheet] was published in memory of the famous actor Kitsusaburo I shortly after his death at the end of the 9th month of 1821, who played this role with particular success in the play "Omi Genji Senjin Yakata" on October 19th/10th/1811 at the Osaka Kitashinchi Theater and played in the Kyoto Shijo South Theater on 18/11/1811. Like all Okubi-e prints of Hokushu, there are several versions of this sheet, the later ones with the bluish background can be recognized by the heavily worn outline plate."

5) In color in Kabuki Actors of the Osaka Stage, 1780-1830 by C. Andrew Gerstle, Timothy Clark and Akiko Yano, University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, page 216, no. 196. The authors wrote: "Many prints were issued or reissued at the time when Rikan took the new name of Kitsusaburō I at the New Year performances in 1821. We have relatively few half-length (ōkubi-e) portraits of Rikan, and this is an 'imagined' (mitate) composition, recalling the role of Sasaki Takatsuna that he had performed to great success in 1805, 1806 and again in the tenth month, 1811, at the Osaka Kita-Shinchi Theatre. Rikan also acted the role of Sasaki Moritsuna, Takatsuna's brother. The pair are pitted against one another at the time of the siege of Osaka Castle in 1616. Takatsuna is the more ruthless and strategically brillint of the two, and determines to sacrifice his own son for the military cause: it is Moritsuna who must kill the young boy. He poses determinedly here with the breastplate of armour visible, and carrying a flintlock rifle."

Takatsuna ni/ataru arashi no/naruko ka na
The storm [Arashi] may strike
Takatsuna
As a clapper frightens off the birds
RYŪSHAKUTEI

'Storm' (arashi) is also Rikan's actor-family name.
Related entities Arashi Kitsusaburō I (初代嵐橘三郎: from 1/1821 to 9/26/1821) (actor)
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
ōkubi-e (大首絵) (genre)
shini-e (死絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)

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