Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and tsuyazuri
height 198 mm × width 183 mm
Utagawa Toyokuni (I)
The Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII
Japan, Japan, 1825
Provenance
…; 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-1995-295
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For general notes on the series, see rp-p-1995-292.
The artist
Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) was a pupil of Utagawa Toyoharu, who first aspired to a career as a designer of prints of beautiful women, bijinga, and then focused on the world of kabuki theatre. He was one of the very few 18th-century designers who enjoyed success well into the next century.
Entry
The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Sukeroku, holding an umbrella, his bamboo flute, shakuhachi, tucked into his sash.
Danjuro VII, known as ‘Eyeball’, Medama, Shichidaime Medama Danjuro - kiwame shichidaime Sansho, with seal: Yau, from un untitled series on The Danjuro Family Tradition of Kabuki Actors.
Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859), the grandson of Ichikawa Danjuro V, first acted under the names Ichikawa Shinnosuke and Ichikawa Ebizo. He then acted under the name Danjuro from XI/1800 to III/1832, when he resumed his original name, Ichikawa Ebizo V. As most other designs in this series, this one also appears to be after a historical performance, probably when Ichikawa Danjuro VII performed the role of Hanakawado Sukeroku in the play Sukeroku, staged at the Tamagawa Theatre in Edo in III/1819.2
The reprint edition with various modifications is in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden (1353-1454).
One poem by Shichidaime Sansho [Ichikawa Danjuro VII, 1791-1859],3 with seal: Kiba.
The poem is a haiku reading:
Sukeroku’s umbrella - what a blessing when the spring rain falls!
Issued by the Danjuro Fan Club
Signature reading: the late ko Toyokuni hitsu
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 524
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Toyokuni, The Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII, Japan, 1825', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318711
(accessed 27 November 2024 05:52:14).