Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Iwai Kumesaburō III (岩井粂三郎) as the Buddhist nun Seigen (清玄尼) on the left and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (市川団十郎) as Matsuwakamaru (松若丸) from the play 'Butai no Hana Yayoi no Irotoki'
03/23/1847
9.75 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri in red
Publisher: Jōshuya Kinzō
(Marks 192 - 25-292)
Censors' seals: Muramatsu and Yoshimura
Waseda University - left panel
Waseda University - right panel
Lyon Collection - 1820 Kunisada print of Matsuwakamaru in a boat - one panel of a triptych
Lyon Collection - 1835 Kunisada triptych The poem in the upper right of the left-hand panel reads: The last leaves of the bush clover bloom brightly (やかに咲いていますやかて咲く/萩の末葉や/しほらしき 以和居扇巴).
The poem on the right-hand panel loosely reads: Flying hands, flying fireflies (はなす手を/ひからせて／飛ぶ蛍かな 八鳫庵三章).
Google translates gives a different interpretation: The fireflies fly, the hands that speak are cooling.
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This is from the play Butai no Hana Yayoi no Irotoki (台比雪花隅色薗) performed in the 3rd month of 1847. This information is provided by Waseda University. The Kuniyoshi Project lists the title as Hatsu Sakura Onoe no Iwafuji (初桜尾上岩藤).
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There are a number of prints in the Lyon Collection showing either the nun Seigen or Matsuwakamaru or both. See the links above.
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These two panels show Iwai Kumesaburō III on the left performing opposite Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII. This commemorates a performance four years before Kumesaburō was raised to the level of a tateonnagata or the highest position an onnagata can hold in the theater.
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A bijin kneeling and shyly raising her arm; flowering bush clover and a full moon behind her.
Ex B. W. Robinson collection
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Jōshūya Kinzō (上州屋金蔵) (publisher)
Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎: 3/1832 - 6/8/1854) (actor)
Iwai Kumesaburō III (三代目岩井粂三郎: from 11/1832 to 1/1864) (actor)