Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 209 mm × width 183 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
A Man and Woman Fighting
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1831
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hasegawa, Japan, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1994;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-282
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
The signature of Tojuen Kunisada is only occasionally seen on prints from the early Tenpo period (1830-34); cf RP-P-1999-243 (see also Izzard).2
Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859) acted under this name from XI/1800 to III/1832, when he adopted the name Ichikawa Ebizo V. Iwai Shijaku (1804-45) acted as Iwai Matsunosuke from 1807; he used the name Shijaku from XI/1822 until early 1844, ending his career as Iwai Hanshiro VII.
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 black kimono grasping the stick a woman is using to beat him.
The man is the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII, possibly in the role of Ishikawa Goemon, the woman is the actor Iwai Shijaku as the courtesan Segawa, in reality Goemon’s wife Oritsu, in the play Masago no gohiiki, performed from VIII/1830 in the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo.3 Normally, one would not expect performances from the Eight Month in surimono, but an exception may have been made because this was Danjuro’s first performance after his tour of western Japan.
Three poems by Yagairo [Takara no] Nakasumi, Sankoro Toyonobu and Baitaro Yoshifuku. Two of the poems on this print contain unmistakable references to the popular kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859), here performing the male role. Nakasumi’s poem refers to the actor’s nickname ‘Oyadama’ (‘Bulging Eye’), Kiba, the district where Danjuro lived, and the three rice measures constituting his stage crest, the Mimasumon, used by the Ichikawa tradition of actors:
A new splendid Spring for ‘Bulging Eye’ Danjuro - the bands of mist draw three lines at Kiba.
In fact, the poem by Yoshifuku has a similar line about ‘mist floating in three lines’. Moreover, it mentions Naritaya, the stage name, yago, of Danjuro VII:
Against today’s purple morning sky, mist floats over the mountains like the three lines of Naritaya.
Issued by poets
Signature reading: Tojuen Kunisada ga, with Toshidama rings
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 557
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, A Man and Woman Fighting, Japan, 1831', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318664
(accessed 23 November 2024 15:22:48).