Shunshisai Hokkai (春始斎北海) (artist )

Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as Ohatsu (おはつ) in the play Tsugiawase Koshiji no Meiboku [接合北国梅]

Print

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Date:04/1832
Dimensions:10 in x 14.47 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Tōhōnan Hokusei (東方南北西画)
Artist's seal: Hoku-se-i
Publishers: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123 - seal not listed)
& Fujita (Marks U050 - seal #21-180)

Links Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - with both publishers' seals
Ritsumeikan University - black and white
Hankyu Culture Foundation - lacking the artist's seal in red and printed in different colors with some design differences
Lyon Collection - same scene but in a print by Kuniyoshi from the early 1840s Description:Hokusei is one of those artists about whom almost nothing is known other than the fact that this artist was also known as Shunshisai Hokkai.

The Edo kabuki star Iwai Shijaku who specialized in onnagata roles, on tour in Osaka here starring as Ohatsu in the play Tsugiawase Koshiji no Ume or no Meiboku at the Kado theatre in 4th month of 1832. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston gives the title as Tsugiawase Koshiji no Ume.

If you click on the image and enlarge it you will see that there are at least two areas of gauffrage. One can be found in the white undergarment near the actor's feet and the other is the light blue fabric hanging down from the waist on the figure's left side - our right side when viewing the print.

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There are several differences between the copy of this print in the Lyon Collection and the one in the Hankyu Culture Foundation

Both copies carry the Fujita seal in the lower left of this print, but only the copy in the Lyon Collection shows the Honsei seal. The Hankyu robe is of an orange color, while the robe in the Lyon Collection, like the one in Boston, is done in a dark blue, probably printed with the recently introduced Prussian Blue. The Lyon print is more delicately and precisely printed - notice the shading in the lower right - and the colors of the clothes and the plants are richer in tones and intensity. Also, the Hankyu print appears to be trimmed on along the right-hand side. For this reason, we feel the copy at the Hankyu Culture Foundation is a later edition.

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Illustrated:

1) in color Osaka-Holzschnitte by Hendrick Lühl, p. 98.

2) in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei, vol. 2, Osaka, 1998, #414, page 130. The author, Susumu Matsudaira, gives the title of the play as Tsugiawase Koshiji no Meiboku.

3) in color in Schätze der Kamigata: Japanische Farbholzschnitte aus Osaka 1780-1880, MNHA (Musée national d'histoire et d'art Luxembourg), 2012, p. 245, #528. This catalogue lists the publishers as Oki and Fujita. The also identify the artist as 'Hukusei', a name we cannot find anywhere else and may be a typo. Also, the copy in this catalog shows Ohatsu wearing a dark blue outer robe as in the one in the Lyon Collection.

4) in color Osaka Prints by Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, p. 155, #149, 1989. In this book Schwaab illustrates the later, commercial edition of this design with an orange kimono; but without the artist's seal and without the silver pigment on the short sword blade. He lists the publishers as Fujita and Tamaoka.

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There is another copy of this print in the Canterbury Museum, Christ Church, New Zealand.
Related entities Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
Iwai Shijaku I (初代岩井紫若: 11/1822-2/1844) (actor)
Fujita (ふじ太) (publisher)
Iwafuji, Onoe, Ohatsu (岩藤, 尾上, お初) (role)

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