Utagawa Hiroshige I or Hiroshige II. Banquet on the Second Floor of a Teahouse with a Tokiwazu Performance / Fan print, 1840s

Description: Interior genre scene set on the second floor of a seaside teahouse overlooking a bay with distant sails. On a raised platform to the right, three Tokiwazu chanters (常磐津太夫) are seated behind music stands, and two shamisen players (三味線) perform a narrative recitation. In the foreground, groups of men and women dine around low trays with lacquer boxes and sake vessels; several figures hold fans. An open veranda with railing frames the scene and the expanse of water beyond. Signed 應需 廣重画 (Ōju Hiroshige ga), indicating a commissioned work. No publisher seal, no date/censor seal, no title.

Another impression of the same design is held by Ritsumeikan University (Kunitachi College of Music Library, Takeuchi Michiyoshi Collection Digital Archive, accession no. 80-1332). One more impression is in the Georges Leskowicz Collection (LIB-3426.2025; Christophe Marquet, Hiroshige: Les éventails d’Edo / Estampes de la collection Georges Leskowicz. — Paris: In Fine, 2022, no. 105, pp. 250–251), where it is described as follows:

105. Sans titre [Un concert de Tokiwazu dans une auberge]
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) ou Hiroshige II (1826–1869)
Signé : Ōju Hiroshige ga 應需 廣重画 (« Dessiné par Hiroshige sur commande »)
Sans marque d’éditeur
Sans cachet de censure
Date : inconnue
Dimensions : 23,9 × 30,5 cm
Bibliographie : Albuquerque 1983, n° 768 ; Arts du Japon 2020, n° 223.

Cette gravure, sans titre ni date, représente un concert de Tokiwazu, récitatif accompagné au luth (shamisen), donné un soir d’été au premier étage d’une auberge au bord de la mer, sans doute sur la baie d’Edo. Deux musiciens et trois chanteurs devant leur pupitre sont installés sur une estrade en arrière-plan, tandis que les invités festoient joyeusement par petits groupes autour de mets, sans prêter attention au concert. L’un des convives tient en main un éventail orné d’un portrait, tandis que deux autres tiennent des éventails avec des blasons en forme de losange.

Il pourrait s’agir d’une parodie, comme dans L’Alcôve (Nedoko 寝床), une histoire comique de rakugo, où un riche propriétaire, mais piètre chanteur amateur, impose à ses employées et à ses locataires sa médiocre prestation, en échange d’un banquet, où tous finissent par s’endormir.

Aucun autre exemplaire de cette estampe pour éventail réalisée « sur commande » n’est attesté.

"Untitled [A Tokiwazu Concert in an Inn]. This print, without title or date, depicts a Tokiwazu performance — a narrative recitation accompanied by shamisen — given on a summer evening on the upper floor of an inn by the sea, probably overlooking Edo Bay. Two musicians and three chanters, seated behind music stands, are installed on a raised platform in the background, while the guests feast cheerfully in small groups around trays of food, paying little attention to the performance. One of the guests holds a fan decorated with a portrait, while two others hold fans bearing diamond-shaped crests. It may be a parody, as in The Alcove (Nedoko 寝床), a comic rakugo story in which a wealthy landowner, but poor amateur singer, forces his employees and tenants to endure his mediocre performance in exchange for a banquet, where everyone eventually falls asleep. No other example of this fan print made “on commission” is known."

Another impression was sold at Sotheby’s, 17 December 2020, as part of a group of four prints. That impression, like those in the Ritsumeikan and Leskowicz collections, shows significantly brighter and more saturated colours than the present example and measures 239 × 305 mm, approximately 5 mm taller than the present sheet (234 × 305 mm).

Note: Tokiwazu (常磐津) refers to a style of jōruri narrative chanting (浄瑠璃) accompanied by shamisen (三味線), developed in Edo in the mid-eighteenth century and closely associated with Kabuki theatre. Performed by a chanter (太夫, tayū) and one or more shamisen players, Tokiwazu-bushi (常磐津節) combines lyrical recitation with dramatic musical accompaniment. It was popular not only on the Kabuki stage but also in urban entertainment venues such as teahouses, where semi-private performances could accompany banquets and social gatherings. In visual culture, depictions of Tokiwazu performances often signal fashionable Edo leisure and the refined tastes of townspeople patrons.