• Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (市川鰕十郎) as Yokanpei (与勘平) from the series <i>A Collection of Temporary Fans</i> (<i>Uchiwa Tōsei Kurabe</i> - 団扇当世競)
Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (市川鰕十郎) as Yokanpei (与勘平) from the series <i>A Collection of Temporary Fans</i> (<i>Uchiwa Tōsei Kurabe</i> - 団扇当世競)
Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (市川鰕十郎) as Yokanpei (与勘平) from the series <i>A Collection of Temporary Fans</i> (<i>Uchiwa Tōsei Kurabe</i> - 団扇当世競)

Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)

Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (市川鰕十郎) as Yokanpei (与勘平) from the series A Collection of Temporary Fans (Uchiwa Tōsei Kurabe - 団扇当世競)

Print


05/1824
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Publisher: Toshikuraya Shinbei
(Marks 539 - seal 25-553)
Location: left-hand side (左- hidari) seen in a circle
at the bottom
Waseda University
Hankyu Culture Foundation - with extra text
Hankyu Culture Foundation - another copy without extra text
Lyon Collection - another copy of this print
Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi Van Doesburg notes that this series of four prints comes from an historical play, Kuzunsha. Original it was composed for the puppet theater. The earliest kabuki production was from the 1730s.

****

This print commemorates a performance of the play Ashiya Dōman Ōuchi Kagami (蘆屋道満大内鏡). "The play was originally a puppet drama written by Takeda Izumo II, premiering at the Takemoto, Osaka, in 70 / 1734. The first kabuki performance took place in 1735 at the Tomijurō, Kyoto. Takeda's tale falls within the fictional genre known as irui konin banashi ('stories of marriage between humans and animals')." Marriages between humans and animals is 異類婚姻譚.

The above quote comes from page 22 of a special edition of Andon in 2006. The text was written by John Fiorillo and Hendrik Lühl.

****

Illustrated:

1) In black and white in Ōsaka Kagami 大阪鏡 by Jan van Doesburg, Huys den Esch, 1985, page 46, no. 32.

2) In Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints) Volume 1, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka 1997, no. 154.

3) In color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 119, #276.

This print commemorates a performance at the Horie Ichinogawa Theater from the fifth month of 1824.

****

The print at the Hankyu Culture Foundation has more text on it than the one in the Lyon Collection.

****

There is a curious Hokushu in the collections of the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In those prints the figure is reversed: same pose, same coloration, but the actor in those cases is Nakamura Utaemon III as Yakanbei and is noted to be on the right-hand side (右) or migi.
Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (初代市川鰕十郎 9/1815 to 7/1827) (actor)
Toshikuraya Shinbei (利倉屋新兵衛) (publisher)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Ashiya Dōman Ōuchi kagami (蘆屋道満大内鑑) (kabuki)