Object data
nishikie, with (traces of) metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 209 mm × width 186 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
A Man Swinging a Large Axe
Japan, Japan, 1833
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1991;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-714
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
The Shipporen was never very active as publishers.
We only know of _Kyoka_on the Suikoden, Kyoka Suikoden, a volume with illustrations by Gakutei dating from 1822,2 and, by the same designer, a series for 1832 of seven prints with beauties as the Seven Gods of Fortune or Luck, titled A Parody on the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, Mitate shichifukujin (RP-P-1958-393 and RP-P-1991-551).
For another design after the same performance, see RP-P-1995-284.
The artist
Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) was a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, who dominated the field of kabuki prints until his death. Kunisada's prints of beautiful women, bijinga, were also very successful. Only well after he had established himself as a designer of actor prints did he enter the world of surimono design, becoming the most prolific designer of surimono in the Utagawa tradition. He also used the art-names Ichiyusai, Gototei and Kochoro.
Entry
A man in a crossed-patterned kimono swinging a large axe over his head.
Print from A Series of Three Prints, Sanbantsuzuki.
The title ‘A Series of Three Prints’ probably indicates that this print is part of a triptych.
The man is the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII, known at the time as Ichikawa Ebizo V, probably in the role of the woodcutter Nekko no Yorizo in a play on the theme of Yamauba and Kintoki. This print probably depicts a performance of the play Yoriari gohiiki Tsuna, staged at the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo in XI/1832.3 However, Kabuki nenpyo lists various roles for Ebizo, such as those of Ebisakonoju, in reality Watanabe Tsuna, and Ashikagayama Yamauba, but not that of Nekko no Yorizo.
Ichikawa Ebizo V (1791-1859), acted under this name from III/1832; he previously acted under the name Danjuro VII, from XI/1800.
One poem by Fukutokyo, from Kawagoe.
The poem reads:
Blown in the Spring breeze, the song of the warbler crosses the mountains and roams through the valleys.
Issued by the Shipporen
Signature reading: Gototei Kunisada ga, with Toshidama rings
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 565
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, A Man Swinging a Large Axe, Japan, 1833', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.446789
(accessed 10 November 2024 06:21:21).