An uncut aizuri fan print showing travellers arriving at Inba Lake [印旛沼] (Inba-numa) on Shimosa Plateau [下総台地] (Shimōsa-daichi). Artist: Utagawa Sadahide [歌川貞秀] (Japanese, 1807 – 1879) Publisher: Unknown. Published: c. 1849. Signed: Gountei Sadahide ga [五雲亭 貞秀画] (Picture by Gountei Sadahide). Inscription in cartouche: Shimosa Plateau, Inbanuma (Inba Lake) [下總國印幡沼]. No date seal, no censor seal (privately printed?) Media: Fan print [団扇絵] (uchiwa-e), 235 x 300 mm.

Title: Early Spring [初春之図] (Hatsuharu no zu); Series: Fashionable Twelve Months [今様十二ヶ月] (Imayo juni-kagetsu). Another version of translation: Modern Beauties of Twelve Months. Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni I [歌川豊国] (1769–1825). Pubisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, 1815 – 1869), seal: Dansendō [伊場仙]. Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国画] and sealed with toshidama. Date-kiwame seal: Ushi (ox), Bunsei 5 (1822). Size: double-sheet uncut fan print ( aiban uchiwa-e), each 217 x 288 mm. Ref: Tokyo Museum Collection. Other five prints of this series: SVJP 0326.2020; SVJP-0362.2022; SVJP-0363.2022; SVJP-0364.2022; SVJP-0365.2022.

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Artist signature: By the brush of the 79-year-old Toyokuni [七十九歳豊國画] (Nanajūkyū-sai Toyokuni ga). Publisher: Ebiya Rinnosuke [海老屋林之助] (Japanese, fl. c. 1832 – 1895); seal: ト/ 海老林 (to, Ebirin). Block carver: Matsushima Masakichi [松島政吉]; seal: carved by Masa [彫政] (Hori Masa). Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: [子極] 1864 (Bunkyū 4/Genji 1). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 223 x 297 mm. Inscription in the cartouches: (R) Wakana-hime [若菜姫], Sawamura Tanosuke III [沢村田之助]; (L) Ashikaga Sanshichirō [足利三七郎], Sawamura Tosshō II [沢村訥升]. Play: Kinoene Soga Daikoku-bashira [甲子曽我大国柱], performed at the Morita theatre [森田座・守田座] (Morita-za) in 1864 (Bunkyū 4/Genji 1), 2nd month (see playbill at MFA-Boston Collection). Playwright: Muraoka Kōji II [村岡幸治]. Actors and Characters: Sawamura Tanosuke III [三代目沢村田之助] (Japanese, 1859 – 1878); other names: Shozan [曙山] (poetry name), Sawamura Yoshijirō I [初代沢村由次郎], here in the role of Princess Wakana [若菜姫] (Wakana-hime) (R). The story about Princess Wakana, Shiranui Monogatari, was written by Ryukatei Tanekazu [柳下亭種員] (Japanese, 1807 – 1858) and published as a 90-volume book of comics between 1849 and 1855. ...The tale revolves around the clash between the Kikuchi and Ōtomo clans. Princess Wakana’s father Ōtomo Sōrin [大友 宗麟] (1530 – 1587) was killed in a battle, and his spirit demanded revenge. To appease her late father's spirit, Princes Wakana acquired the power of the Earth Spider. She often appears in prints with a magic scroll, which helps her fight various enemies. Sawamura Tosshō II [二代目沢村訥升] (Japanese, 1854 – 1879); other names: Kōga [高賀] (poetry name), Sawamura Genpei II [二代目沢村源平], Sawamura Sōjūrō [澤村宗十郎], Suketakaya Takasuke IV [四代目助高屋高助], Sawamura Tosshi VI [六代目澤村訥子] (poetry name), here in the role of Ashikaga Sanshichirō [足利三七郎] (L) with a horse. According to Markus Sesko, the scene comes from the kabuki play Umakiri (馬斬り) by Tatsuoka Mansaku [辰岡万作] (17432 – 1809), which premiered in 1794. It was later assimilated into the Kabuki play Kozotte Mimasu Kuruwa no Datezome [襷廓三升伊達染], which was staged in the 1st lunar month of 1853 at the Nakamura-za. Umakiri is based on a Kyōgen play featured in Hideyoshi’s biography Taikōki [太閤記]. Its plot is that Ashikaga Sanchichirō Yoshitaka [足利三七郎義孝・義高], who is supposed to allude to Nobunaga’s son Oda Sanshichirō Nobutaka [織田三七郎信孝], attacks and kills a horse that is carrying 3,000 ryō (金三千両), money Mashiba Hisayoshi [真柴久吉] (an allusion to Hashiba Hideyoshi [羽柴秀吉]) had sent to be donated to a shrine on Mt. Kōya. The surrounding people try to catch him, but when they hear it is Yoshitaka who killed the horse, they fall to the ground and prostrate, and Yoshitaka leisurely leaves with the money. The plot is very simple, but Yoshitaka’s dashing appearance makes it very pleasing to watch. There are also prints that quote the main protagonist as Ashikaga Sanshichirō Harutaka [足利三七郎春高], and there is another title for the play, Sanzen-Ryō Kogane no Kurairi [三千両黄金蔵入] (Pocketing 3,000 ryō of gold). For reference, see also the BLOG. What these two characters are doing in one play remains a riddle. As Mr Graebner comments: "Most kabuki plays were only performed for one season (two months), and the books were lost. The playwrights have repeatedly used parts of plots from other plays, they have adopted characters, sometimes with the same or similar names. What can be found is the Kabuki Playbill (Tsuji banzuke) with cast and roles; the content is lost". Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Horst Graebner of the Kunisada Project and to Markus Sesko of The Metropolitan Museum, NY, for the analysis of the image and their invaluable contribution. For reference, see also:        

Title: Modori Kago [戻駕] (Returning palanquin). The dance-drama Modori Kago Iro ni Aikata [戻駕色相肩] premiered in the 11th lunar month of 1788 at the Nakamuraza [中村座], within Sakurada Jisuke I's kaomise [顔見世] (faceshowing) program Tôzumô Hana no Edogata [唐相撲花江戸方]", which celebrated the homecoming to Edo, after two years' absence, of Nakamura Nakazō I, and was intended to show off his particular talents in the role of Jirosaku (in reality Ishikawa Goemon [石川 五右衛門]) [kabuki21]. The symbol on a green book cover is the informal crest of tokiwazu-bushi [常磐津節] shaped like a water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis) lozenge. Artist signature 国盛画 (Kunimori ga) with red toshidama. According to Samuel L. Leiter’s Kabuki Encyclopedia (1979), p. 243: The palanquin bearers Nanpa no Jirosaku and Azuma no Yōshirō, who are bearing a palanquin with a courtesan's young handmaiden in it, stop to rest at Kyoto's Murasakino, and each dances his regional dance. Then they call the girl, who does a dance showing the visitors to the famous pleasure quarters, Yoshiwara and Shimabara. The two men recognize each other as Ishikawa Goemon and Masashiba Hisayoshi, sworn enemies, and engage in a fight. This number is the only remaining section of an annual "faceshowing” (kaomize) work with a plot based on the medieval chronicle called the Toikōki. The full-length piece was called Kara Sumō Hanaeda no Kata. It is one of the most famous tokiwazu pieces and preserves the old-style Kabuki flavour. Nakamura Nakazō I played Jirosaku and Matsumoto Kōshirō IV was Yoshiro in the first production. The handmaiden was Matsumoto Komesaburō (probably Matsumoto Komasaburō I, an unknown actor [SV]). According to Egenolf Gallery: This work was first performed in 1788 at the Edo Nakamura-za as the season’s first performance and featured Nakamura Nakazō, who returned to Edo after three years in Osaka. It was a dance with tokiwazu chanting and was designed for him to play the lead role. In the piece, two palanquin carriers, one from Osaka, another from Edo, and a passenger – a kamuro, (a young geisha-in-training) exchange stories about the pleasure quarters of Shimabara and Yoshiwara. The text of the chanting book is open next to her, carrying the title “Collection of Practicing” [稽古尽くし], on which the green bundle cover carries the crest of Tokiwazu School, matsu-kawa-bishi, diamond variety of pine bark and the artist’s signature. Tokiwazu is a type of jōruri, narrative music, and accompanies dancing on the kabuki stage. Ref.: Christie's 27 Mar 2006. Publisher: Maruya Jinpachi, seal Marujin (Marks: 12-029 | 294e) Single nanushi censor seal: Mura (Murata Sahei, 1842-46). Provenance: Circular seal of the collector Huguette Bérès to verso. Contributors: Utagawa Kunimori [歌川国盛] (Japanese, fl. c. 1818 – 1943) – artist. Maruya Jinpachi [丸屋甚八] (Japanese, fl. 1770 – 1842) – publisher. Other mentioned: Nakamura Nakazō I [中村仲蔵] (Japanese, 1736 – 1790); other names: Nakayama Kojūrō VI, Nakamura Ichijūrō, Nakayama Manzō – actor. Matsumoto Kōshirō IV [松本幸四郎] (Japanese, 1737 – 1802); other names: Omegawa Kyōjūrō; Ichikawa Komazō II, Ichikawa Somegorô I, Ichikawa Takejūrō ; Segawa Kinji; Segawa Kingo – actor. Sakurada Jisuke I [桜田治助] (Japanese, 1734 – 1806) – dramatist.