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Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Actor: Sawamura Gennosuke II [沢村源之助] (Japanese, 1802/7 – 1853); other names: Suketakaya Takasuke III, Sawamura Chōjūrō V [沢村長十郎], Sawamura Tosshō I, Sawamura Genpei I. Character: Kameya Chubei [亀屋忠兵衛] Play: Koi Bikyaku Yamato Orai [恋飛脚大和往来] Performance: Kawarasaki Theatre [河原崎座] in the 2nd month of 1851. Double nanushi censor seals: Fuku & Muramatsu, from 3rd month of Kaei 2 to 11th month of Kaei 4 (1849-51). Another fan print from the pair SVJP-0212-1.2016: Ichikawa Ebizō V as Tanbaya Onizo / Fan print, 1851. -
Shakudō tsuba of the slightly vertically elongated round form (nagamaru-gata) decorated by gold in flat inlay (hira-zōgan) with three insects (cricket, locust, and praying mantis), grass and dewdrops motif. Kogai hitsu-ana is plugged with gilded soft metal. Height: 70.2 mm; width: 66.4 mm x Thickness at seppa-dai: 4.5 mm. Edo period (from ca. 1700 to ca. 1850) Unsigned. Attributed to Kaga School or Murakami School. Almost identical tsuba (no dewdrops, though) is illustrated and described at page 60 of Kokusai Tosogu Kai. 7th International Convention & Exhibition, November 1st, 2011 at Tokyo National Museum, page 60. It is attributed to the Kaga School, Mid Edo period (Late 17th - early 18th century). Dimensions: 70.5 x 66 x 4.5 mm. "The rich black shakudo plate has been slightly lowered (dished out) and then polished. Gold insects crawl amongst grasses, depicted by Kaga style hirazogan (flat inlay). One tendril of the mantis overlaps onto seppa-dai. The mantis boldly looks out from the tsuba in a curious way. This style of Kaga tsuba was popular during the Genroku era (1688-1703)."Another source is Japanese Sword Fittings. A descriptive catalogue of the Collection of G.H. Naunton, Esq., completed and illustrated by Henri L. Joly, - 1912:
7-U17. Ron Hartmann Collection.
Kanazawa in Kaga was a centre of fine metal work during the whole of the Tokugawa period. At first the inlayers of Fushimi following the Daimyo Maeda went to Kanazawa, then some of the Gotō masters proceeded from Kyoto for short periods to work for the Daimyo, so that their influence was strongly impressed upon Kaga work..." A somewhat look-a-like tsuba is illustrated at plate XXVIII, Kaga Inlay, №653 with the following description at page 52: "Shakudō, inlaid with five insects in gold: crickets, praying mantis, grasshopper, in the style of Takagawara Ujitsugu.
According to M. Sesko, Ujitsugu was a master from Katsuki and Kaneko School in Kaga, son of Ujihira. Ujihira's father Ujiyoshi died in 1802. This brings us to the mid-19th century, instead of mid-18th or earlier. On the other hand, a very much look alike specimen at MFA collection (ACCESSION NUMBER 17.1061) has the with the following description: Edo period. Late 18th–early 19th century. Murakami School. Main material: shakudo; other metals: gold; decorative technique: iroe hirazogan.A detailed account of Murakami school can be found at The Japanese toso-kinko Schools.// Lulu Inc., 2012 by Markus Sesko, on pages 235-239. All-in-all, it's either Kaga School or Murakami School, either ca. 1700 or ca. 1850. Quite a range! SOLD
MFA # 17.1061
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Mukade-zōgan tsuba with two types of wires. Iron, inlaid with brass and iron wire fastened to the surface with metal staples (mukade-zōgan); Brass inlay around the rim. Design is thought to resemble a centipede. "Centipede-like inlay (mukade zogan) of alternating iron and brass staples produce an appearance that was particularly favored by Takeda Shingen (1521-1573), one of the most powerful warlords of his time. The centipede is sacred to Bishamon (God of War) and especially propitious for a warrior. Shingen type, 16th century.” [The Peabody Museum collection of Japanese sword guards with selected pieces of sword furniture, by John D. Hamilton. Photographs by Mark Sexton. Salem, MA, 1975.] Height: 85.8 mm; Width 86.2 mm; Thickness at seppa-dai: 4.3 mm. Weight 177.6 g. Early Edo, 17th century. http://varshavskycollection.com/shingen-tsuba/ -
Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865).Uncut fan print (uchiwa-e), 295 x 230 mm, depicting kabuki actor Bandō Shūka I as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) reading a scroll by the light of a lantern. From the series A Parody of the Five Chivalrous Commoners; a Cup of Sake From Their Fans (Mitate gonin otoko, go-hiiki no omoizashi). According to Paul Griffith, the term omoizashi refers to the act of pouring a cup of sake for one's chosen partner, here giving an impression of intimacy and affection between famous actors and their patrons.
Actor: Bandō Shūka I [初代坂東しうか] (Japanese, 1813-1855); other names: Bandō Tamasaburō I, Bandō Mitsugorō V (posthumously). The print was probably published by some unknown Yama-Ta (Marks U421b). Double nanushi censor seals and date seal: Muramatsu and Fuku, Kaei 5, 2nd month (2/1852). As Kabuki Encyclopedia put it: "Gonpachi. A parasite. From the character named Shirai Gonpachi who lives at the home of Banzui Chōbei and sponges off him" (An English-Langauge Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten. Samuel L. Leiter. Greenwood Press, 1979, pp. 26, 98-9). There were many kabuki plays based on the story of the lovers Miura-ya Komurasaki and Shirai Gonpachi. (See: [LIB-2226.2019] Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford. Tales of Old Japan. — London: Macmillan and Co., 1883). Ref.: Art shop Ezoshi Ukiyoe new collection news, vol. 66, 2023.1 (Jan) # 31, p.8. -
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863), seal: 彫竹 – hori Take. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 232 x 300 mm. Title: Tamagiku [玉菜]. Series: Chronicles of Elegant Women [風雅女史傳] (Fūga joshiden). Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: Ansei 6 (1859). Other prints from the same series in this collection [SVJP-0216.2016] — Princess Sotoori:
SVJP-0400.2023 — Saiko:
Note by Elena Varshavsky:
Tamagiku [玉菜] (Japanese, 1702 – 1726) – Precious Chrysanthemum (translated also as Jade Chrysanthemum; one can say also Gem Chrysanthemum). She was a courtesan famous for her beauty, kind heart, and countless artistic accomplishments. She died young and was deeply grieved by the establishment of Nakamanji-ya (中万字屋) for which she worked, and beyond. Her memory was celebrated during the Bon festival of the commemoration of the dead, and lanterns were hung at the gallery of that establishment and other neighbouring ones to commemorate her and appease her soul. These lanterns are seen behind her. Kabuki plays were continuously dedicated to her, she figured in Edo period literature and was often portrayed on ukiyo-e prints. In many cases, she was shown with the lanterns associated with her. Those lanterns were called “Tamagiku Lanterns”.
Other depictions of Tamagiku:
Tamagiku (Ancient and modern women's biography) by Kunisada, 1859.
Courtesan Tamagiku by Kunichika.
Tamagiku of the Nakamanjiya, Inaki Shinnojō, and Nakamanjiya Yahei (looking through the window) by Kunisada.
Nakamanji-Ya Tamagiku by Kunisada
Sources: darumapedia; kajiipeta; kabuki21; crosseyedgallery.
Nakamanji-Ya Tamagiku by Kunisada, 1857
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Superb Edo pictures illustrating dances (Odori keiyô Edo-e no sakae): Interior of an imaginary theater with a performance of Shibaraku 「踊形容江戸絵栄」. Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Publisher: Nōshūya Yasubei (Japanese, fl. c. 1851 – 1870). Year: 1858 (Ansei 5), 7th month. Size: Vertical ôban triptych; 36.9 x 75.7 cm. Signed: 一陽斎雛獅豊国筆(年玉印) – Ichiyôsai Hinashi Toyokuni ga (on left sheet only). Censor's seal: Horse 7 [午七 彫師]. Subject: Shibaraku. Ref.: MFA impression: 11.44263a-c; Robert Schaap. Kunisada (2016), p. 101 [LIB-1212.2017]. Ref.: [LIB-1197.2016] Arendie and Henk Herwig. Heroes of the kabuki stage: an introduction to kabuki with retellings of famous plays, illustrated by woodblock prints. — Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004; p. 38.
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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. -
Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川 歌麿; c. 1753 – 31 October 1806). Act III (Sandanme), from the series The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers (Chûshingura). Publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudô). About 1801–02 (Kyôwa 1–2) Vertical ôban; 39.3 x 26 cm (15 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.). Reference: MFA ACCESSION NUMBER 11.14441 Ukiyo-e shûka 3 (1978), list #368.3; Shibui, Ukiyo-e zuten Utamaro (1964), 165.1.3; the series: Asano and Clark 1995, #s 383-5. -
Ippitsusai Bunchō [一筆斎文調] (Japanese, 1725 – 1794). Size: Vertical Hosoban. As the Library of Congress put it: "Print shows the actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II, full-length portrait, facing left, standing on the snow-covered veranda". Actor: Ichikawa Monnosuke II [市川門之助] (Japanese, 1743/56 – 1794); other names: Ichikawa Benzō I, Takinaka Hidematsu II, Takinaka Tsuruzō. According to Heroes of the Kabuki Stage [LIB-1197.2016] Ichikawa Monnosuke II was active from 11/1770 to 10/1794. Play: Chūshingura [忠臣蔵] (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), played at Nakamuraza in the 4the month of Meiwa 8 (1771). The actor played in a variety of roles and performances and was the subject of multiple woodblock prints by many famous ukiyo-e artists, including Bunchō, Katukawa Shunkō, Katukawa Shunshō, Katsukawa Shun'ei, Tōshūsai Sharaku, and many others. Ref: Vever (1976), vol. 1, № 242, p. 227.
Katsukawa Shun'ei. The Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II in an Aragoto Role. LACME.
Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Date no Yosaku Artist Tôshûsai Sharaku (Japanese, active 1794–1795), Publisher Tsutaya Jûzaburô (Kôshodô) (Japanese) 1794 (Kansei 6), 5th month. MFA.
Ippitsusai Bunchô. Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Tsunewakamaru. Play: Iro Moyô Aoyagi Soga Theater: Nakamura. MFA.
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Kikukawa Eizan (菊川 英山, 1787 – July 17, 1867) Signed: Eizan hitsu (英山筆)Jacob Pins #972/p.341. Leiden, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde.
"The Lovers Miura-ya Komurasaki and Shirai Gonpachi: Tragic love stories taken from real life and dramatized were a staple of stage and print; the darkly romantic combination of desire and death was hugely popular in the eighteenth century. Hirai Gompachi was a warrior of the Tottori fief in western Japan who fled to Edo after committing a murder. He was apprehended and sentenced to death in 1679. His distraught lover, the courtesan Komurasaki, committed suicide at his grave." [MET]
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Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi [歌川 國芳] (Japanese, 1798 – 1861).Title: Suzume fukube [美人団扇絵] (Sparrow and gourds).
Series: Kacho awase [花鳥合] (Collection of flowers and birds).
Publisher: Aritaya Seiemon [有田屋 清右衛門] (Japanese, fl. c. 1830 – 1862); Seal: Marks 17-011 | 014d.Signed: Ichiyosai Kuniyoshi ga in a red cartouche and sealed with paulownia crest (kiri mon).
Size: Uchiwa-e (untrimmed fan print) 296 x 230 mm.
Double nanushi censor seals: Kinugasa & Watanabe, Kaei 2-3 (1849–50).
Ref.: Kuniyoshi Project. -
An uncut fan print shows a young woman holding a basket on a landscape background with hills and pines under a rising sun. Haruo Shirane: "Under the luni-solar calendar, the New Year coincided with the beginning of spring, making it the most important observance of the year for the aristocracy. In the Heian period, New Year ceremonies extended from New Year’s Day (Ganjitsu) to the Day of the Rat (Nenohi), which usually fell on the seventh day of the First Month, when courtiers went out to the fields (no), pulled up small pines, and gathered new herbs (wakana) as a prayer for long life. This ritual gradually spread to the provinces and to commoners, eventually resulting in the New Year practice of the gate pine (kadomatsu), in which a pair of small pines was placed at the gate of a house. A popular Heian-period painting topic representing the First Month was “prayers on the Day of the Rat” (Nenohi no asobi), which depicted the auspicious scene of pulling up small pines in a spring field. Both young herbs and gathering young herbs, particularly at Kasuga Field, became major poetic topics for the First Month, appearing in both the spring and celebration (ga) books of the Kokinshū (Collection of Japanese Poems Old and New, ca. 905). By the Kamakura period, the observance of the Day of the Rat had been abandoned at the imperial court, but the custom of gathering and eating young greens continued as the annual ceremony known as the Seven Grasses (Nanakusa). Note: The Heian-period ritual of pulling up the roots of small pines (komatsu ) on the first Day of the Rat derives from the homonyms ne (rat) and ne (root). Pulling up roots was auspicious, since it implied lengthening the year. The rising sun (hinode) was considered an auspicious sight, particularly at the beginning of the year". [Haruo Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons. Nature, Literature, and the Arts. — Columbia University, NY, 2012]. Title: Gathering of the young herbs on the Day of the Rat [子の日乃若菜] (Nenohi no wakana). Series: Three elegant sources of light [風流三光の内] (fūryū sankō no uchi); meaning the sun, the moon and the stars). Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞]; a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a yellow toshidama cartouche. Publisher’s seal: Izuzen (Marks: seal 06-029 | U103b) Date and double nanushi censor seals: Mera and Watanabe, Kaei 6 (1853). A similar theme can be found in Kunisadai's triptych published in about 1844 (HARA SHOBO):
豊国三代「豊歳子日若菜摘ノ図」
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Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Ōju Toyokuni ga [応需豊国画] in a toshidama cartouche. Double nanushi censor seals Mera & Murata (1846-50). Publisher: Kojimaya Jūbei [小嶋屋重兵衛] (Japanese, fl. c. 1797 – 1869). A gentleman, probably a kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon IV [中村歌右衛門] (Nakamura Shikan II, Nakamura Tsurusuke I, Nakamura Tōtarō, Japanese, 1796 – 1852) drinking tea on a veranda under the shining moon. Series Moon, Sun, Stars [月日星] (tsuki-hi-hoshi/boshi), the three sources of light (sankō) [三光]: -
Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō III [嵐吉三郎] as Sarushima Sōta [猿島惣太] in the play Hanamo Yoshida Iwao no Matsuwaka [花吉田岩尾松若] staged at Ichimura-za (市村座), theatre in Edo. Artist: Utagawa Kunisada, a.k.a. Toyokuni III (Japanese, 1786 – 1865) [歌川 国貞]. Publisher: Kojimaya Jūbei (Japanese, 1797-1869), seal: Hanmoto, Jū [板元, 十] (Marks 19-043 | 264c. Date seal and double nanushi censor seals Mera & Watanabe – 3rd month of Kaei 6 (1853). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Media: Fan print (uchiwa-e), 223 x 294 mm. Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō III [嵐吉三郎] (Japanese, 1810 – 1864); other names: Arashi Daizaburō III, Arashi Kitsusaburō III Ref.: Art shop Ezoshi Ukiyoe new collection news, vol. 66, 2023.1 (Jan) # 30, p.8. -
Fuchi: 38 x 22 x 14 mm. Kashira: 33 x 18 x 9 mm Techniques: Usu-shishiai-bori (薄肉合彫) – low-relief, zogan. -
Iron tsuba of round form decorated with eight circular emblems of flowers and/or family crests (mon) made of cast brass, pierced and chiseled in kebori, as well as with flat brass inlay (hira-zōgan) of vines, leaves, and flowers all over the plate. Yoshirō school (Kaga-Yoshirō). The Momoyama or early Edo period, 17th century. Size: diameter 80 mm, thickness at seppa-dai 3,6 mm. Symbols: [12:00 o'clock] - Wood sorrel (katabami) and swords ; [9:00] - Cherry blossom (sakura); [7:30] - Bellflower (kikyō), kamon of Toki clan; [3:00] - possibly, a six-petal Chrysanthemum (kiku) or a Passion flower (tessen); [1:30] - Hemp (asanoha). The symbols at 6:00, 10:30, and 4:30 o'clock seem to be geometrical patterns of auspicious meaning: a cross in a square, a four pointing star, and a diamond, respectively. Alternatively, we may look at this piece as purely decorative, with patterns at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 o'clock in negative openwork (in-sukashi), and at 1:30, 4:40, 7:20, and 10:30 o'clock - in positive openwork (ji-sukashi, or yō-sukashi). Markus Sesko in his Handbook of sword fittings related terms [Herstellung und Verlag: Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, 2011] discriminates this type of openwork in a separate class: Ranma-sukashi: "This term is applied to circular sukashi with family crests to their inside, which are arranged running along the rim area. The description goes back to the opened boards (ranma) between the sliding doors and the ceiling of Japanese rooms. Ranma-sukashi are mostly seen on old Heianjō- or Yoshirō-zōgan-tsuba but also on works of Hayashi Matashichi" [page 30]. -
Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro [喜多川 歌麿] (Japanese, c. 1753 – 1806) "This uncommon half-size horizontal ōban ... is most likely one design from a set of twelve prints issued late in Utamaro's life" [Japanese Erotic Fantasies, Hotei Publishing, 2005, p. 143, pl. 47]. Half-size horizontal ōban must be 12.7 x 38 cm. Richard Waldman and Chris Uhlenbeck say it's tanzaku size (13 x 43 cm). In reality, the prints of this series measure 17 x 38 cm, which corresponds exactly to horizontal o-hosoban paper size. I managed to assemble 11 of allegedly 12 designs. 7 of them have genitals colored by hand. It's hard to tell whether it was done by the publisher on demand of a peculiar buyer, or by the owner of the prints who considered the black and white privy parts unnatural. My sequencing of the prints is arbitrary. Transcription of the text may help find the correct order.
As Japanese Erotic Fantasies put it: "a couple engaged in love-making, their stare fixed outside the picture plane". This is the only image of series that has a reference in available western literature, and the only one found in museum collections: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (RP-P-1999-2001-16); reference: Fukuda (ed.) (1990), pls. 11-2.
The scene of this print looks quite similar to that of the Kiyonaga's Sode no maki:
The woman is "a young lady-in-waiting of Shogun's Court or Daimyō's Mansion, enjoying a rare outing from her tedious chores" [Richard Lane]. She is fully dressed in her outer cloak (shikake), white paper hat (agebōshi or tsunokakushi), and toed socks (tabi). A book or maybe, onkotogami (roll of tissues known as 'paper for honourable act' ) is still in the folds of her kimono. She is holding an open fan, either to cover her and her lover's faces from an unsolicited witness or to bring some fresh air to their joined lips. The pair just started their sexual intercourse.
A scene from medieval times. A courtier in eboshi cap having sex with an aristocratic young woman with a long straight hairstyle (suihatsu).
Completely naked couple in the moment of ejaculation. Lavish garments with paulownia leaves on a yellow background counterbalance the white bodies on red bedding. The form of a woman's cheeks is telling, but I don't know about what. Maybe her advanced age?
The pose of the couple and the overall composition are similar to that of the previous sheet. Though the lovers are dressed, and the woman's hairdo is well kept. The male looks older and the woman - younger.
A man takes a young maid from behind. She clenches the sleeve of her kimono in her teeth; it's either the moment of penetration (beginning of intercourse) or of her orgasm (the end of it).
This seems to be a forced intercourse between a lackey with extensive bodily hair and a young maid from the same household.
This design is very much like the other one presented below, which is described at Japanese Erotic Fantasies on page 136 (pl. 43b) as follows: "The viewer peers through a mosquito net to see a child fast asleep, while his mother or wet-nurse moves towards her partner. On our print there is no child; instead of a sleeping baby, there is a roll of onkotogami. Fewer objects make the overall image concise, almost laconic in comparison with the Ehon hana fubuki (1802) design:
A young couple in a moment of true love. He is listening to the beating of her heart.
This is a moment of true love between an old monk and a young samurai. The latter even did not take of his socks (tabi).
From Japanese Erotic Fantasies: "Boats played a crucial role in the workings of Yoshiwara, as they were the primary means of transport to the district. During the hot summer months, trips on pleasure boats were also a favourite pastime. Sex aboard a boat is a recurrent theme in shunga".
The last print that I am currently lacking and hunting for:
I know where it is, but I cannot reach it... yet. -
Iron tsuba of round form with two overlapping triangles (uroko) motif in openwork (sukashi). Triangle patterns usually associate with 'fish scale', mon of Hojo family (and others). Edo period or later.Size: 71.4 x 70.2 x 5.2 mm.
An association with the Star of David is doubtful if not impossible.
