Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
The Syllable Ma（ま）as in Masakado (まさかど): Iwai Kumesaburō III (岩井粂三郎) as Takiyasha-hime (瀧夜叉姫) and Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助ヵ) as Ōtaku Tarō (大屋太郎) from the series Seven Calligraphic Models for Each Character in the Kana Syllabary (Seisho nanatsu iroha - 清書七伊呂波)
08/1856
10 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi
(Marks 595 - seal 21-072)
Date seal: 8/1856
Censor seal: aratame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Waseda University
National Diet Library - example with a grayish toad
National Diet Library - example with a distinctively bluish toad
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Lyon Collection - another print from this series
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Another copy of this print in black and white reproduction, stolen by the Nazis from David David-Weill, later restored
Lyon Collection - Yoshitsuya triptych of Masakado and his sister the Princess
Walters Art Museum
Edo-Tokyo Museum The odds are that this was a very popular series. It combined a number of motifs popular with the buying public in Edo: actors portraying magical figures.
We know of at least three different editions of this print because of the two copies in the National Diet Library collection and the one featured here. One has the giant toad, which dominates the background, appearing mysteriously out of a grey and black haze. The foreground ground is printed in a slightly deeper shade of gray. The other example is exactly the same in every way except the toad and background have a distinctive bluish tint with a green ground in front. The print in the Lyon Collection, it would seem, represents a third variation with a somewhat bluish-gray toad and atmosphere and a gray ground.
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If you click on the image and enlarge it you will see on Princess Takayashi's robes two large blue-bodied, green-headed bats with gaping red open mouths. They are flying above a ground composed of spider webs. The presence of the bats tie this print loosely to a triptych by Yoshitsuya, also in the Lyon Collection, of the Princess and her brother. See the link above showing the bats in the center and left-hand panels.
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The word for spider web in Japanese is kumo no su (蜘蛛の巣).
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The curatorial files at the Walters Art Museum say:
"The wicked Princess Takiyasha is shown in this print invoking toad magic in her attempt to overcome her enemy the hero Mitsukuni. According to legend, Princess Takiyasha was the daughter of Taira no Masakado, an evil magician and unsuccessful usurper of the throne, who died in the year 940. After her father's death, Takiyasha encountered Nikushisen, the spirit of a toad, whose witchcraft abetted her in fomenting a rebellion. However, the emperor's defender Mitsukuni courageously withstood the power of Takiyasha's magic, thus quelling her ambitions."
Yamamotoya Heikichi (山本屋平吉) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Iwai Kumesaburō III (三代目岩井粂三郎: from 11/1832 to 1/1864) (actor)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助: 3/1839 to 6/1860) (actor)
Taira Masakado (平將門) (role)