A Kite Featuring a Portrait of a Man with a Scarf

Entry

A kite with its bobbin, its tails draped loosely behind it. On the kite a bust-portrait of a man wearing a yellow-patterned head scarf and holding a lance in his left hand, protected by a metal gauntlet.

The man portrayed here is the popular kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII. The pattern decorating the ground is the repeated crest of three rice measures, Mimasumon, used by the Ichikawa tradition of actors.

Kruml dates this design to 1824, which would mean it was designed by Toyokuni I. However, Iwata - who has been followed here - suggests a date in the second half of the 1820s. Kruml also states that it is usually seen as a Meiji-period (1868-1912) facsimile (not listed by Keyes though). However, the fine pattern on the head scarf and the uninterrupted tail of the kite indicate that this is an original.

Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859) acted under this name from XI/1800 to III/1832, when he adopted the name Ichikawa Ebizo V.

One poem by Shoshokyo Otomon [or Otokado]. The poem mentions the ‘repeated unrolling of the kite’s string to sixty fathoms’, thus alluding to the 61st birthday of the poet, who is now ‘expecting a new childhood of one, two, three years, next Spring’. The popular belief was that one reached the age of a child again after having lived a full cycle of 60 years - calculated by combining two aspects of the five elements with the twelve animals of the zodiac. However, since the poet’s dates are not known, this does not help us to date the print.

Issued by the poet
Signature reading: Toyokuni ga