Object data
nishikie, with blindprinting
height 219 mm × width 186 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
Two Young Men in A Fight
Japan, Japan, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1826
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1992;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-283
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Ichikawa Ebizo VI (1823-54) used the name only as a child actor, from III/1825 to III/1832, when he became Danjuro VIII. For another print depicting a parody of the same scene, see RP-P-1991-584.
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
Two young men in a fight, one of them pulling at the armour of the other. An inset at top left has a bust-portrait of a man looking on.
This is a representation of the well-known ‘Pulling the Armour’ scene, Kusazuribiki, from the Soga drama. The younger of the two Soga brothers, the impetuous Soga no Goro Tokimune, attacks Asahina Saburo, and pulls off his armour. Though a retainer in the service of the man the Soga brothers intend to kill, Asahina Saburo has joined sides with them.
The actors are Ichikawa Ebizo VI, later Danjuro VIII, and possibly one of Ichikawa Danjuro’s other sons. The man looking on from the inset - staged as the shape crest, mon, of the Ichikawa family of actors, the Mimasumon - is Ebizo’s father, the great Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859).
This performance of the role could not be traced in the kabuki annals and may represent either an imaginary performance or one for a specially invited small audience.
Two poems by Shunryusha Ononaga and Bunbunsha [Kanikomaru I, 1780-1837, of samurai stock and a leader of the Katsushikaren].2
Issued by a follower of Bunbunsha Kanikomaru
Signature reading: drawn on request, motome ni ojite Kunisada ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 551
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, Two Young Men in A Fight, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1826', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318668
(accessed 17 November 2024 17:44:20).