Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

A kabuki actor as the wakatō Hachiemon (わかと八右衛門) in the play Godairiki Koi no Fūjime [五大力恋緘]

Print

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Date:03/1854
Dimensions:9.75 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Fujiokaya Keijirō
(Marks 063 - seal 26-104)
Date seal: Tiger 3 - 3/1854
Censor's seal: aratame
Links Description:A wakatō, as seen at the top of this page, is a foot-soldier or foot-man.

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It turns out that the play Godairiki Koi no Fūjime was important in the history of kabuki. Samuel L. Leiter in his book Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre wrote on page 20: "There was considerable interchange between Kamigata and Edo. In the 1790s, Sawamura Sōjūrō III (1753–1801) came to Edo with the playwright Namiki Gohei (1747–1808) and starred in Godairiki Koi no Fūjime, enormously influencing the Edo approach playwriting and the arrangement of a kabuki program. By this point, nearly 200 years after the Edo period had begun, kabuki reached a stage of perfection, but its once-youthful drive had begun to diminish and a period of stagnation was looming."

This play, like so many others, is loosely based on a real love, jealousy and crime story of five people murdered in Sonezaki.

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There is a small set of Hokusai surimono in the Bibliothèque nationale de France entitled 'Vows to the Five Bodhisattvas' (Godairiki). This series "...implies associations with stories about faithful women. Godairiki was the word women of those days used to inscribe on shamisen, hairpins, and other personal items as a vow of fidelity to their lovers."

This is quoted from the English language supplement to Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections 8: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, p. 8.
Related entities Fujiokaya Keijirō (藤岡屋慶次郎) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)

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