Kabuki actor: Matsumoto Kōshirō V [五代目松本幸四郎] (Japanese, 1764-1838); other names: Ichikawa Komazō III, Ichikawa Sumizō I. Role: Nikki Danjo (仁木弾正): "Evil retainer Nikki Danjo who plots to overthrow his lord in the play Precious incense and the bush clover of Sendai (Meiboku sendai hagi)" [R. Kruml]. Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Block cutter: Horikō (Kiyomizu) Ryūzō [彫工 柳三]. Publisher: Ebisuya Shoshichi [恵比寿屋庄七], Kinshōdō (Japanese, fl. c. 1846 – 1883). Year: 1863 (Bunkyū 3), 7th month. Size: Vertical ōban, hōsho paper. Signed: Nanajuhassai (aged seventy-eight) Toyokuni ga within toshidama cartouche. Censor’s seal: date-aratame. This print is from a series of portraits that Kunisada undertook very late in life and has been named Kinshodo-ban yakusha okubi-e (Kinshodo’s Large-Head Actor Portraits) in reference to the publisher, Ebisuya Shochochi of Kinshodo. The series depicted great actors in their famous roles from the past and present. Ref.: (1) [LIB-1212.2017] Robert Schaap. Kunisada: Imaging, drama and beauty. — Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2016, p. 118 and 167 (№ 42): Ref.: (1) [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; pp. 243-249.

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, 1^st 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 Onoe Kikugorō V [五代目尾上菊五郎] (Onoe Baikō V, Ichimura Kakitsu IV, Ichimura Uzaemon XIII, Ichimura Kurōemon, Japanese, 1844 – 1903) giving candies to the memorial portrait of his predecessor, Ichimura Takenojō V [市村竹之丞] (Ichimura Uzaemon XII, Ichimura Kamenosuke, Ichimura Toyomatsu, Japanese, 1812 – 1851); the latter is dressed in a green robe adorned with a crest (mon) of a kōrin-style crane in a tortoiseshell (octagon), the hanging scroll border decorated with bamboo under snow; the collar of Onoe's kimono decorated with plum blossoms, another plum blossom arrangement decorates the screen behind him. Actors identified by Horst Graebner. Two fan prints from this series in Varshavsky Collection:

SVJP-0335.2021

SVJP-0336.2021

 

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), 230 x 295 mm. Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: Ansei 6 (1859). Title: Princess Sotoori [衣通姫] (Sotoori-hime) – Sotoori-hime was a concubine of Emperor Ingyo (reigned AD 412-53), and one of the Three Gods of Japanese Poetry [和歌三神] (Waka sanjin). Series: Chronicles of Elegant Women [風雅女史傳] (Fūga joshiden). The sign on the torii (Shinto shrine gates) reads: Mountain king shrine [山王宮] – it is the Sannō Shrine at the Nagata Riding Grounds in Edo. A print with these gates is at MFA (Boston) # 21.9853. Other prints from the same series in this collection: SVJP-0343.2021 — Tamagiku: SVJP-0400.2023 — Saiko: Note: Special thanks to Horst Graebner, who helped decipher and understand the meaning.  

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]:

SVJP-0211-1.2016: The Moon

SVJP-0211-2.2016: The Sun

SVJP-0211-3.2016: The Stars

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. Publisher: Mikawaya Heiroku [三川屋平六] (Japanese, fl. c. 1848 – 1856); seal: Mihei [三平] (Marks 11-016 | 325a) Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863), seal: 彫竹 – Hori Take. Date seal and aratame censor seal: [辰正] Ansei 3, 1^st month (1856). Inscriptions: Right cartouche: Three good fortunes of the present day [当世三福対] (Tosei sambuku tsui) Center cartouche: Ubuge no Kintaro [産毛の金太郎] (うぶげのきんたろう)  According to Horst Graebner, the play is Tomigaoka koi no Yamabiraki (or Tomioka Koi no Yamabiraki [富岡戀山開], according to kabuki21.com, common title Ninin Shinbē [二人新兵衛]); Kintarō might be Nakamura Fukusuke I [中村福助], the female role might be Mikuni Kojorō [三国小女郎] (or Mikuni no Kojorō). Nakamura Shikan IV [中村芝翫] (Japanese, 1831 –  1899); other names: Nakamura Fukusuke I, Nakamura Masanosuke I, Nakamura Komasaburō, Nakamura Tamatarō I.

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. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, c. 1815 – 1869). Double nanushi censor seals: Hama & Magome, Kaei 2-5 (1849 – 1852). An uncut fan print (uchiwa-e, 220 x 292 mm) depicts a beautiful woman sitting on a balcony overlooking a bay and reading a book. Above the book, there is an obi with a pattern of stripes or modified key fret motif, with lettering that reads: 菅原島 [Sugawara-jima] and 美立 [mitate]. The lettering and the blossoming plum branch next to the obi provide an allusion to  Sugawara no Michizane [菅原 道真/菅原 道眞] (Japanese, 845 – 903) - a prominent scholar and poet of Heian period exiled from Kyoto to the island of Kyushu as a result of another courtier's slander. A legend says that his beloved plum tree was so fond of its master that it flew to Kyushu with Sugawara. The Davis Museum at Wellesley College describes the print as belonging to the series A Parody of Sugawara Stripe Patterns (Mitate Sugawara-jima). To make the fact of an allusion transparent, Kunisada had changed the usual way of writing "Sugawara stripes" from 菅原縞 to 菅原島 and "mitate" from 見立 to 美立. An unusual spelling was also used to provide additional information to the reader in other cultures. E.g. during the Prohibition Era, the West Coast United States speakeasy bars and bordellos misspelt the items on a menu ("scollops") or in a neon sign ("Martuni's") to tell: here we have more pleasures for you than you may have expected. After Tenpō reforms, the printing of bijin-ga (美人画, "picture of beautiful woman") images was restricted. Our print disguises a typical bijin-ga as an advertisement of an obi (帯, a kimono sash) fabric pattern. "The market of portraits was satisfied and the authorities fooled" [Rebecca Salter. Japanese popular prints. — Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006].