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 Nakamura Shikan IV [中村芝翫] (Nakamura Fukusuke I [中村福助], Nakamura Masanosuke I, Nakamura Komasaburō, Nakamura Tamatarō I, Japanese, 1831 – 1899) arranging a branch of blossoming plum to the memorial portrait of his predecessor Nakamura Utaemon IV [中村歌右衛門] (Nakamura Shikan II, Nakamura Tsurusuke I, Nakamura Tōtarō, Japanese, 1796 – 1852); the latter is dressed in a black robe adorned with a mokkō-crest (mon) of white plum blossom, the hanging scroll border decorated with arabesque and plum blossoms. Actors identified by Horst Graebner.
Two fan prints from this series in Varshavsky Collection:
 SVJP-0336.2021 |
