Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
Shini-e of two actor mourners grieving the loss of a Ichikawa Ebizō V
03/23/1859
9.25 in x 13.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Waseda University
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
Victoria and Albert Museum
Hankyu Culture Foundation
National Museum of Japanese History (via Ritsumeikan University) One of the mourners has been identified as Ichikawa Hakuen IV (Ichikawa Komazō VII/Ichikawa Ebizō VII) who died in 1874. The other mourner may be Kawarazaki Gonjūrō I (Ichikawa Danjūrō IX) who died in 1903.
The figure in the hanging scroll is wearing a robe decorated with the Ichikawa mon, the mimasu or 'three enclosed measures of rice'. In the copy of this print in the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a Toyokuni hitsu signature on the scroll. This is the only example we have found so far with a signature. All of the other linked examples are like the print shown here from the Lyon Collection.
The first part of the text reads:
安政六己未年三月廿三日 徳誉恢郭子儀善法子 芝山内あかん堂常照院葬
The rest reads:
なみた雨羽袖ぬらして帰る鳥
shini-e (死絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Ichikawa Ebizō V (五代目市川海老蔵: 11/1797 to 10/1800 and 3/1832 to 3/1859) (actor)
Ichikawa Danjūrō IX (九代目市川團十郞: July 1874 to 1903) (actor)
Ichikawa Komazō VII (七代目市川高麗蔵: from 3/1844 to 2/1856) (actor)