Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865).
Signed: Ichiyōsai Toyokuni hitsu [一陽斎豊国筆].
Inscriptions: [松竹梅] Shochikubai = pine (matsu, 松), bamboo (take, 竹), and plum (ume, 梅) – an auspicious grouping known as “The Three Friends of Winter“; [三福追] (Sanpuku tsui) – the three delights, or pleasures.
Date seal and aratame censor seal: Ansei 2, 1st month (1855).
Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, c. 1815 – 1869).
Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863); seal: Hori Take [彫竹].
Kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō V [五代目尾上菊五郎] (Onoe Baikō V, Ichimura Kakitsu IV, Ichimura Uzaemon XIII, Ichimura Kurōemon, Japanese, 1844 – 1903) giving candies to the memorial portrait of his predecessor, Ichimura Takenojō V [市村竹之丞] (Ichimura Uzaemon XII, Ichimura Kamenosuke, Ichimura Toyomatsu, Japanese, 1812 – 1851); the latter is dressed in a green robe adorned with a crest (mon) of a kōrin-style crane in a tortoiseshell (octagon), the hanging scroll border decorated with bamboo under snow; the collar of Onoe’s kimono decorated with plum blossoms, another plum blossom arrangement decorates the screen behind him. Actors identified by Horst Graebner.
Two fan prints from this series in Varshavsky Collection:
 SVJP-0335.2021 |
