Utagawa Kunihiro (歌川国広) (artist )

Ichikawa Ebijūrō II (市川鰕十郎) in the role of Ume no Yoshibei (梅の由兵へ) in the play Suda no Haru Geiko Katagi [隅田春妓女客性]

Print

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Date:05/1828
Dimensions:10.25 in x 14.875 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Kunihiro ga (国広画)
Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei
(Marks 536 - seal 21-193)
Links Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Lyon Collection - Toyokuni I print of Ume Yoshibei Description:This print commemorates a performance at the Takada Theater in the fifth month of 1828.

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The text on the left of the print reads: 身にあまる大役をつとめ侍るにも只マ御取立に預らん事を希上奉りて

虫于に着て貝る父の衣(?)かな

[Signed: Shinshō II, the poetry name of this actor] 二代目新升

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There are three other prints in the Lyon Collection with representations of Ume no Yoshibei. One is by Toyokuni I (#892), one by Shūshō (#40) and one by Hokuchō (#156).

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Illustrated:

1) in color in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 2, Osaka, 1998, no. 49.

2) in color in Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, no.120, page 33. The author wrote: "The poem on the left is signed "Shinsho II," the actor's literary name. The dazzling yellow-and-white background pattern incorporates the Ichikawa actor crests. This actor held the name Ebijūrō until his death in 11/1829; however, he does not seem to have elicited as much attention as his predecessor." The yellow-and-white background includes the mimasu or three nested square measure traditionally used for rice, two overlapping fans and a chrysanthemum within a lozenge motif.

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"Suda no haru geiko katagi (A geisha's temperament and her client: 隅田春妓客性) was written by Namiki Gohei I (1747-1808) and premiered in Edo, 1/1796. It was based on an actual murder in Osaka in 1689 when a man named Yoshibei killed a clerk named Chōkichi. In the play, Yoshibei, an otokodate (lit., "standing man" or chivalrous commoner: 男伊達 or 男作, a type of street fighter often mythologized as a hero to the downtrodden in Edo-period urban Japan), has sworn to protect a Chiba samurai named Kingorō and his young wife Kosan, daughter of Mishima Hayato. Yoshibei is a volatile sort who has taken to wearing a purple zukin (head cloth: 頭巾) as a reminder to control his temper. A precious poem card belonging to the Hayoto clan has been stolen and Yoshibei searches for it in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, where Kosan has indentured herself as a geisha. Yoshibei decides to ransom her for Kingorō and so his wife, Okun, asks her brother Chōkichi, a rice broker, for the money. When Chōkichi is assaulted by a robber along the Ō River, Yoshibei chases the thief away. It is very dark and Yoshibei and Chōkichi do not recognize one another. Yoshibei then asks to borrow the money Chōkichi is carrying, not realizing it was intended for him to pay off Kosan's ransom. When Chōkichi refuses, the enraged Yoshibei kills him, using the zukin in an ironic (and literal) twist of purpose."

Quoted from: Osakaprints.com
Related entities Ichikawa Ebijūrō II (二代目市川鰕十郎: from 11/1828 to 11/24/29) (actor)
Tenmaya Kihei (天満屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Ume no Yoshibei (梅の由兵へ) (role)
Namiki Gohei (初代並木五瓶) (kabuki)
Otokodate - chivalrous men (男伊達) (author)

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