Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
Sawamura Tanosuke III as Urazato (浦里) on the right and Nakamura Shikan IV as Tokijirō (時次郎) on the left in the play Akegarasu yuki no uchizato (其廓夢夜烏 - Tokojirō and Urazato dream of a light snow)
11/1860
20 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: konomi ni makasete Toyokuni ga
好任豊国画
Publisher: Ebiya Rinnosuke
(Marks 040 - seal closest to 22-008)
Carver: Matsushima Hori Masu
Combined censor and date seals: aratame and 11/1860
Waseda University - right panel
Waseda University - left panel
Ritsumeikan University - right panel
Ritsumeikan University - left panel
National Diet Library
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Yoshitsuya print of Sawamura Tanosuke III in the same role
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Yoshitsuya print of Iwai Kumesaburō III as Urazato
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg - right panel
Achenbach Foundation - right-hand panel only
Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln - misidentified as being by Hiroshige II
Lyon Collection - an Eisen print showing the same couple This unusual diptych commemorates a performance at the Morita Theater. Why unusual? Because the background is splattered with metallic inks which are meant to simulate falling snow. Even though it looks a bit like falling ember we know that it represents snow, because the word 'snow' appears in the title.
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As it turns out, Kunisada produced quite a few prints related to this play. And indeed the word 'snow' does appear in the title.
Originally based on a song/poem from 1769. It told the story of an actual event where two young lovers, Inosuke, the 21 year old son of a government official, and Miyoshino, a 24 year old prostitute, had killed themselves in Mikawashima in Edo. This tale was adapted to the puppet theater early on as a dance-drama. "It was a great hit, largely because of the beautiful voice of the kiyomoto singer Kiyomoto Tahei and the acting of Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII as Tokijirō and Bandō Shuka I as Urazato. In its first production, it was performed after the eighth act of a revival of Kanedehon Chūshingura, with Tokijirō presumed to be one of the forty-seven samurai involved in the Akō vendetta, but subsequent revivals omitted the connection with that play."
Quoted from: The New Kabuki Encyclopedia edited by Samuel L. Leiter, p. 11.
Akegarasu yuki no uchizato is only one variation on this theme.
Sawamura Tanosuke III (三代目沢村田之助: 1/1859 to July, 1878) (actor)
Nakamura Shikan IV (四代目中村芝翫: 7/1860 to January 1899) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Chūshingura (忠臣蔵 - 47 Rōnin) (genre)
Ebiya Rinnosuke (海老屋林之助) (publisher)