Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting (on sword sheath)
height 201 mm × width 180 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
A Man and a Woman in a Fight
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1832
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1990;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-663
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Sawamura Gennosuke II (1802-53) acted under this name from 1817-31, when he changed his name to Sawamura Tossho and again to Sawamura Sojuro V from 1844. Segawa Kikunojo V (1802-32) acted under this name from 1815 to until his death in I/1832.
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 holding a bow fighting with a woman who is falling to the ground. A dark night sky above.
This is the left sheet of a diptych (or possibly the centre sheet of a triptych) with the right sheet featuring the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII holding onto a tree (MFA 11.19899).
The man is the kabuki actor Sawamura Gennosuke II, the woman Segawa Kikunojo V, possibly represented in a scene from the play Matsuochikara Tomoe no fujinami, performed at the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo from XI/1831.2 Gennosuke announced his change of name to Tossho on this occasion and then performed the role of Sawanosuke, in reality Asahi Kitsune. Segawa Kikunojo performed the role of his daughter Otama, in reality the courtesan Kitsune.
Three poems by Bunso Takeo, Shokosha Chiyohiko and Eijudo.
Issued by the poets
Signature reading: Kochoro Kunisada ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 560
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, A Man and a Woman in a Fight, Japan, 1832', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.446751
(accessed 20 September 2024 03:45:19).