![Nakamura Utaemon IV [四代中村歌右衛門] as Daruma portrayed on a hanging scroll - <i>Ni Daruma no ichijiku</i> (似達磨の一軸)](https://woodblockprints.org/media/lyon_collection/images/6/94060_ca_object_representations_media_673_large.jpg)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Nakamura Utaemon IV [四代中村歌右衛門] as Daruma portrayed on a hanging scroll - Ni Daruma no ichijiku (似達磨の一軸)
08/1848
9.75 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi hitsu
一勇斎国芳筆
Seal: Kuniyoshi
Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō
(Marks 127 - seal 11-001)
Censor seals: Murata and Mera
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
Lyon Collection - related Kuniyoshi diptych from this same play
Lyon Collection - another related Kuniyoshi diptych from this same play where the scroll can be seen on the ground in the lower right
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art This representation of Utaemon IV 'cutting a mie' as a painting of Daruma is almost singular in Japanese woodblock prints. Even the use of broad black lines as if they were applied with a brush, such as the ones to be found in paintings of Daruma, while not unheard of, is highly unusual. Was the creation of this image the brainchild of Kuniyoshi, Utaemon, the publisher or the theater that produced the play? I am not sure we will ever know precisely, but are all richer for its existence.
Note: Click on the link above to the other example in the Lyon Collection and you will see that just such a scroll painting was used as a prop in a play at this time. However, that takes nothing away from the clever nature of this particular print. (JSV)
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This print commemorates a performance of the play Takagi Oriemon Budō Jitsuroku (高木織右武実録) at the Nakamura Theater.
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Illustrated:
1) In color in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap, Hotei Publishing, 1998, p. 161, no. 172. The author wrote:
"This example is an okubi-e ('large-head picture') of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV (1798-1852) posing as Duruma. The first patriarch of meditative Buddhism (J: Zen), Daruma (Sanskrit: Bodhidharma) is undoubtedly one of the pre-eminent symbols of Zen. The son of a king in southern India, he travelled from India to China in the 6th century where he went to the monastery of Shaolinsi on Songshan. There he meditated before a rock wall for nine years before attaining complete enlightenment. Legend states that one day he fell asleep and after awakening he was so penitent that he cut off his eyelids and threw them to the ground. They took root on the spot where they landed and grew into tea plants, thus providing other meditation masters with an efficacious remedy against sleep. The Japanese claim that he visited Japan in 613 AD using reeds to cross the sea in a similar fashion to his journey across the Yangzi river to Shaolinsi. This print is done in imitation of a kakemono ('hanging scroll') painting and would have been a cheap substitute for one. Kuniyoshi's strong, self-confident brushstrokes are especially showcased in the rendering of Daruma's robes. The heavy beard, bushy eyebrows and exotic earrings are a reference to Daruma's Indian origins: the piercing eyes without eyelids are the focal point of this print."
2) In color in Kuniyoshi by Jūzō Suzuki, Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, 1992, no. 316.
3) In color in Japanese Prints: Images of the Floating World, Barry Davies Oriental Art, #72, illustrated on p. 95.
4) in black and white in Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Springfield Museum of Art, 1980, #159.
5) in a full page black and white reproduction in Kuniyoshi by B. W. Robinson, London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1961, #79.
6) in color in Ukiyo-e from The Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, 1994, #55, page 107.
Ibaya Senzaburō (伊場屋仙三郎) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Nakamura Utaemon IV (四代目中村歌右衛門: 1/1836-2/1852) (actor)
Daruma or Bodhidharma (達磨) (role)
ōkubi-e (大首絵) (genre)