![Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as Ohatsu (おはつ) in the play <i>Tsugiawase Koshiji no Meiboku</i> [接合北国梅]](https://woodblockprints.org/media/lyon_collection/images/1/49394_ca_object_representations_media_109_large.jpg)
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]
04/1832
10 in x 14.47 in (Overall dimensions) woodblock print
Signed: Tōhōnan Hokusei (東方南北西画)
Artist's seal: Hoku-se-i
Publishers: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123)
& Fujita (Marks U050)
(Neither is listed in Marks. The
combined seal is listed as Fujita at seal #21-180.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ritsumeikan University - black and white
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Lyon Collection - same scene but in a print by Kuniyoshi from the early 1840s 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 at the Kado theatre in 4th month 1834.
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.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston says that the title of the play represented in this print is Tsugiawase Koshiji no Ume.
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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. 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.
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.
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) (author)