Color woodblock print for a rigid fan (uchiwa-e), 210 × 282 mm.
Description: Two half-length figures against a blue-to-black gradated sky; a bird in flight (top center) and a firework rocket (打ち上げ花火) with an attached poem slip (tanzaku, 短冊) visible in the upper right; a standing lantern (行燈, andon) in the left background. Binding holes along the left margin.
Left: Onoe Baikō IV (尾上梅幸) as Shōtaku Samon (沼沢左門, inscribed in red rectangular cartouche to the left), in a pink-purple kimono with floral pattern over red and blue undergarments, red obi with flowers and arabesque pattern; a firecracker held in right hand.
Right: Sawamura Chōjūrō V (沢村長十郎) as Takagawa Risaemon (高川理左衛門, inscribed in yellow rectangular cartouche), in a dark brown kimono with circular chrysanthemum mon diaper over red and black undergarment, and blue obi with mokkō-lozenge pattern; blue shave line on cheek.
Inscriptions. Red scene cartouche (upper center): Gojūsan tsugi no uchi: Okazaki (五十三次ノ内 岡崎), "Okazaki, from the Fifty-Three Stations." Right: artist's signature Toyokuni ga (豊國画) within a red toshidama cartouche; publisher's mark 十 (jū) for Kojimaya Jūbei (小島屋重兵衛). Censor seal: Magome Kangeyū (馬込勘解由); the seal of Hama Yahei (濱弥兵衛) trimmed off. No date seal.
Identification. The actors' names are not inscribed on the print, but the roles and actors have been identified by Horst Graebner as corresponding to a performance of the play Chūshingura Gojūsan Tsugi (忠臣蔵五十三次) at the Ichimura theatre, in the fifth month of Kaei 3, in which Onoe Baikō IV and Sawamura Chōjūrō V appeared together in these roles. The play weaves together the narrative of the forty-seven loyal retainers (Chūshingura) with the fifty-three post stations of the Tōkaidō highway, each scene being set at a specific station; the depicted scene takes place at the Okazaki station (岡崎宿).
Play: Chūshingura Gojūsan Tsugi (忠臣蔵五十三次, "Along the Fifty-Three Stations with the Treasury of Loyal Retainers"; Marks, Tōkaidō, 2013 [LIB-1178.2016].
Theatre: Ichimura theatre (市村座, Ichimura-za), Edo
Date: fifth month of Kaei 3 (嘉永3年5月, 1850)
Actors and roles:
Onoe Baikō IV (尾上梅幸, 1808–1860) as Shōtaku Samon (沼沢左門)
Sawamura Chōjūrō V (沢村長十郎, 1802–1853) as Takagawa Risaemon (高川理左衛門)
Thanks to Horst Graebner (Kunisada Project) for his assistance in the identification of actors, roles, and inscriptions.
