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

Onoe Baikō III (尾上梅幸) as the ghost of Kasane [かさねゆうこん] in the play Kuruwa Kuruwa Date no Ōyose [曲輪来伊達大寄]

Print

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Date:02/1836
Dimensions:9.375 in x 14.125 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
五渡亭国貞画
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Chōzō - not shown on this print
because it appears on the missing lower panel
Censor's seal: kiwame - not shown here
Red 'RS' seal lower right
Links Waseda University
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - full diptych
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
National Museum of Asian Art - the full diptych Description:This print commemorates a performance at the Ichimura Theater the second month of 1836.

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The curatorial files from Mount Holyoke Art Museum point out: "This print is the top part of an upright diptych, whose lower part depicts a man seated and watching the bonfire, from which the woman ghost rises, in front of him. The man identified as Sawamura Tossho I in the role of Kinugawa Yoemon."

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In a special 2006 edition of Andon John Fiorillo and Hendrik Lühl wrote about an 1864 Kasane play: "This was an Osaka-based production of one of the many Kasane mono ('Kasane plays'), puppet and kabuki adaptations of a tale of karma involving an ugly woman named Kasane whose excessive jealousy incited her husband Yoemon to murder her at the Kinu River in Hanyū. Her vengeful spirit tormented her family until, finally, Saint Yuten prayed for her salvation and Kasane's rage was pacified (her name on Enjaku's print includes the appellation jōbutsu, meaning 'becoming a Buddha')"
Related entities Kawaguchiya Chōzō (川口屋長蔵) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Onoe Baikō III (三代目尾上梅幸: 11/1814 to 10/1815) (actor)

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