Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 217 mm × width 188 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
A Woman, a Boy and a Man
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1833
Inscriptions
- collector's mark, verso, stamped: Glued seal with inscription.
- collector's mark, recto, stamped
Provenance
…; collection Catherine Ball (collector's mark);…; purchased from the dealer Hasegawa, Japan, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1992;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-284
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Iwai Hanshiro VI (1799-1836), earlier Iwai Kumesaburo II, acted under this name from XI/1832 until his death in IV/1836. Ichikawa Danjuro VIII (1823-54) acted under the name Ichikawa Ebizo VI from III/1825 to III/1832, when he became Ichikawa Danjuro VIII. He committed suicide on the 8th Day of the Sixth Month of 1854 while touring Osaka. Ichikawa Ebizo V (1791-1859), acted under this name from III/1832; he previously acted under the name Danjuro VII, from XI/1800.
For another design after the same performance, see RP-P-1991-714.
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 surimono designed as three horizontal bands, each consisting of a portrait and a poem. At top right a woman in a black kimono, a towel over her shoulder; in the centre a boy holding a tree branch over his shoulder; at the bottom a bearded man wearing a cap, his arms crossed over his chest.
The woman is the kabuki actor Iwai Hanshiro VI, the boy the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VIII in the role of Kidomaru, or the infant Kintoki, and the man is Ichikawa Ebizo V (formerly Ichikawa Danjuro VII) in the role of the woodcutter Nekko no Yorizo. The performance with a cast that comes closest to this was the play Yoriari gohiiki Tsuna, staged at the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo in XI/1832.2 Hanshiro performed the role of the geisha Koito of the Nakaneya, the young Danjuro played the role of Nosetaro, and Ebizo portrayed various roles, including those of Ebisakonoju, in reality Watanabe no Tsuna, and Ashikagayama Yamauba.
Three poems by Yagairo Takara no Nakasumi, Jingairo Kiyosumi [1786-1834, the son of Rokujuen Yadoya no Meshimori and a judge of the Gogawa],3 and shichidaime Sansho [Ichikawa Danjuro VII, 1791-1859].4
Danjuro’s poem is preceded by the statement that he contributed it ‘at the request of Master Kiyozumi’, Kiyozumi nushi no motome ni, the second poet on this print.
His poem reads:
My white hair - taking the road to Mukojima and crossing Sumida River, today I am home again in Kiba.
Issued by admirers of the actors
Signature reading: Kunisada ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 564
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, A Woman, a Boy and a Man, Japan, 1833', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318672
(accessed 20 September 2024 02:39:54).