Shunkōsai Hokushū. Bando Mitsugorō III as Lady Iwafuji and Nakamura Matsue III as Lady Onoe / Ōban, 1821.

Artist: Shunkōsai Hokushū [春好斎 北洲] (Japanese, active c. 1802–1832), also known as Shunkō IV

Signed: 春好斎 北洲 画 (Shunkōsai Hokushū ga)

Publisher: Wataya Kihei [綿屋喜兵衛] (Japanese, fl. c. 1809–1885)

Date: 1821 (Bunsei 4), 1st month

Media: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper; Vertical ōban 380 x 260 mm

Actors:

• Bandō Mitsugorō III [三代目 坂東 三津五郎] (Japanese, 1775–1831); also known as Bandō Minosuke I, Morita Kanjirō II, Bandō Mitahachi I
  • as Lady Iwafuji (局岩ふじ)
• Nakamura Matsue III [三代目 中村 松江] (Japanese, 1786–1855); also known as Nakamura Sankō I, Nakamura Tomijūrō II, Ichikawa Kumatarō
  • as Lady Onoe (中老尾上)

Play: Kagamiyama kokyō no nishikie (鏡山旧錦絵); (Mirror mountain: A woman’s treasury of loyalty)
Theater: Kado-za (角座), Osaka

Two onnagata actors appear beneath flowering cherry blossoms in a dramatic kabuki scene. On the left, Nakamura Matsue III portrays Lady Onoe, wearing a black kimono with a peony motif, lined in red and blue sayagata (key fret) pattern. She holds a scroll and wears an agebōshi (揚帽子) headdress.
Behind her at right, Bandō Mitsugorō III appears as Lady Iwafuji, wearing a kimono adorned with various flowers. She gazes ahead with a tense expression and holds a folding fan.

According to Herwig*, it is the left sheet of a diptych: See companion sheet: SVJP-0234.2018.

Bando Mitsugorō III as Lady Iwafuji and Nakamura Matsue III as Lady Onoe	Bandō Mitsugorō III as Daihanji Kiyozumi and Arashi Koroku IV as Koganosuke

Reference:

MFA Boston, accession no. 11.35375.

[LIB-1197.2016] Arendie and Henk Herwig. Heroes of the kabuki stage: an introduction to kabuki with retellings of famous plays, illustrated by woodblock prints. — Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004; p. 72.

[LIB-1193.2013] Leiter, Kabuki Encyclopedia, p. 156;

[LIB-0879.2015] Kabuki Plays on Stage (vol. 2), pp. 172–212.

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