Actor triptychs

1815 – 1846, Part I

 

These actor triptychs and diptychs were published between 1815 and the 11th month of 1846, but I have been unable to associate them with a particular production.  They generally bear a single circular censor’s seal without an oval date seal.  These seals are usually near the artist’s signature, and sometimes are only found on a single sheet of a multi-sheet composition.  Prints without actorsʼ names were generally published in 1842 or later.

 

Actors: Iwai Shijaku I as 仲ゐお松 実ハ☆式部 (left) and Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Matahei (栗の木又平, right)

Play: Possibly Keisei hangonkô (けいせい反魂香 )

Date: 1822-1832

Publisher: Azuma-ya Daisuke

Actors: Left sheet: Bandô Kumajûrô II (坂東熊十郎) as Saitô Yoshitatsu (斎藤義竜)

Center sheet:  Ichimura Uzaemon XII as Tarui Notota (垂井ノ藤太)

Right sheet: Bandô Mitsugorô IV as Takenaka Hanbei Shigeharu (竹中官兵兵衛重治) and Bandô Matahachi (坂東又八) as Mikuni Kojorô (三国九郎次)

Play:

Date: c. 1833-1835

Theater:

Publisher: Edo-ya Matsugorô

 

I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan for this triptych.

Actors: Unidentified actors as Umeômaru (梅王丸, center sheet) and Sugawara no Michizane (right sheet)

Play: Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (菅原伝授手習鑑)

Date: 1843-1846 (censor Yoshimura)

Publisher: Sa (phonetic reading of)

Actors: Arashi Kichisaburô III as Igami no Gonda (いがみの権太)

Play: Probably Yoshitsune Senbon zakura (義経千本桜)

Date: c. 1841-1842

Publisher: Tsuta-ya Kichizô

 

NOTE: Most of the woodblocks for this print, and probably the complete triptych, were also used for a triptych bearing Kunisada’s signature.  The triptych with Kunisada’s signature is for a performance of Yoshitsune Senbon zakura (義経千本桜), at the Ichimura theater in the 3rd month of 1839.  The actors are Ichikawa Kuzô II as Igami no Gonta (いがみの権太, left), Ichimura Uzaemon XII as Yasuke (弥助, center), and Iwai Tojaku as Osato (お里, right).

I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan and Horst Graebner for the above information.

Actors: Actor Ichikawa Ebizô V (市川 海老蔵)

Play:

Date:

Publisher:

Actors: Left sheet: Iwai Tojaku as Chidori (in foreground), Ôtani Mansaku II as Senô Tarô Kaneyasu (on ship) and Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as Tanzaemon (on ship)

Right sheet: Sawamura Tosshô I as Shunkan

Play: Heike Nyogo no Shima (平家女護嶋 or 平家女護島, The Heike and the Women-Protecting Island)

Date: 1838-1844

Publisher: Ezaki-ya Kichibei

 

NOTE: This diptych may be for an 1840 production of Heike Nyogo no Shima at the Kita Theater in Kyôtô.  I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan and Horst Graebner for this information. 

Actors: Nakamura Utaemon IV as Jirô (治良蔵, left), Ichimura Uzaemon XII as Heiji (平治, center), and Onoe Kikujirô II as Haru On’na (はる女, right)

Play:

Date: 1842-1846 (censor Watanabe Shôemon)

Publisher: Kame-ya Iwakichi

 

NOTE: This triptych might represent the New Year’s dance titled Kashiragaki Ise Monogatari which was performed at the Ichimura Theater in the 1st month of 1843, within the play Kioi Uta Soga no Hanadashi.  However, actor prints were banned at that time by the “Tenpô reforms”.  An alternative explanation is that this is a mitate of the play Seishû Akogi-ga-Ura.

Actors: Bandô Mitsugorô IV as Atsuma no ??? (あつまの連五郎, left) and Onoe Kikugorô III as Ude no Kisaburô (うでの喜三郎, right)

Play:

Date: c. 1833-1835

Publisher: Daikoku-ya

Actors: Ichikawa Ebizô V as Kamakuraya no Tomo (かまくらやの友)

Play:

Date: c. 1833

Publisher: Izumi-ya Ichibei

Actors: A mitate of Sawamura Tosshô I as Ôiso no Tora ( 磯のとら)

Date: c. 1841-1842

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Shôzô

 

NOTE: The text reads mitate, Ôiso no Tora, Sawamura Tosshô (見立,  大磯のとら, 澤村 訥升).  Mitate are portrayals of actors in imagined or fantasy roles, which they never actually performed on stage.  I am grateful to Susan Porter for this image and to to Lucienne Parkan for information about the print.

Actors: Onoe Kikugorô III possibly as Kanpei (のやかん平, left), Iwai Tojaku I as the geisha Okaru (げいしゃおかる, center), and Ichikawa Ebizô V as Ônoya Kihei (大のや喜平, right)

Play:

Date: c. 1835

Publisher: Jôshû-ya Jûzô

 

I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan for this image.

Actor: Onoe Kikugorô III, possibly as Honchô Tsunagorô

Play:

Date: c. 1830-1840

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Chôzô

Kuniyoshi - (straw hat, bow, monkey mask) Ichikawa Ebizô V (L), Iwai Tojaku I as Matsugae (C) & Onoe Kikugorô III (R), 1832-46

Actors: Ichikawa Ebizô V as Umemaru Genba (梅丸玄番, left), Iwai Tojaku I as Matsugae (松ヶ枝, center), and Onoe Kikugorô III as Michizane (道真公, right)

Play: Probably Sugawara denju tenarai kagami

Date: c. 1833-1835

Theater:

Publisher: Maru-ya Seijirô

 

I am grateful to Marc DeVriese for this image.

Actors: Sawamura Tosshô I as Hachiman Kuro no Sangorô (八幡黒の三五)

Play:

Theater:

Date: c. 1831

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Shôzô

 

NOTE: Sawamura is written as 澤村 instead of as the more usual 沢村, and Hachiman kan (八幡官) is written on the kimono.   I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan and Horst Graebner for information about this print.

Actors: Ichimura Uzaemon XII as Hanbei (半兵衛, left) and Nakamura Utaemon IV as Kôsuke (幸助, right)

Play: Possibly Fude Hajime Soga no fukubiki (筆始曽我福贔屓) which was performed in the 1st month of 1841 in the Ichimura Theater

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

 

I am grateful to Marc DeVriese and Lucienne Parkan for this image. 

zKuniyoshi - Set of Three Varieties of Accomplishments Compared (Zokugei kurabe sampuku tsui), Pub

Title on each sheet: Set of Three Varieties of Accomplishments

Compared (Zokugei kurabe sampuku tsui, 諸芸競三幅対)

People: Oshichi (お七, snow, left), Kichiza (吉三, flowers, center), and Baisao (売茶翁, moon, right)

Date: 1842-1846 (censor Murata Sahei)

Publisher: Enshû-ya Matabei

 

NOTE: This may have been an attempt to circumvent the ban on actor prints during the “Tenpô reforms”.  These three ôban sheets are listed as series 105 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson, 1961, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Actors: Ôtani Tomoemon IV as Kudô Inubômaru Suketomo (工藤犬坊丸祐友)

Play: An unidentified play about the Soga Brothers

Date: c. 1833-1835

Publisher: Yamaguchi-ya Tobei

Actors: Ichikawa Danjûrô VII (left) and Iwai Shijaku I (right)

Play:

Date: c. 1824

Publisher: Azuma-ya Daisuke

 

I am grateful to Frederik Balhuizen and Josta Klaassen for the image on the right, which does not have any purple.

Actors: Sawamura Tosshô I as Kinokuniya Gengorô (きのくにや五郎, left), Iwai Hanshirô VI, formerly Kumesaburô II, as Oyama (おやつ, center), and Nakamura Shikan II as Ibishi no Kangorô (いびしの翫五郎, right)

Play:

Date: 1832-1833

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

 

NOTE: Iwai Kumesaburô II changed his name to Iwai Hanshirô VI in the 11th month of 1832 and Shikan II returned to Osaka in the fall of 1833.

I am grateful to Robert Pryor for these two sheets from an aizuri-e variant of the above triptych.

Actors: Iwai Tojaku as Mikazuki Osen (三日月おせん, left) and Ichikawa Ebizô V as Ebizako no (ゑびざこの十, right)

Play:

Date: c. 1833

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Shôzô

 

NOTE: Iwai Hanshirô V assumed the name of Iwai Tojaku in the 11th month of 1832.  The text on the umbrella reads Ebizako (ゑびざ).  I am grateful to Robert Pryor for this image.

Actors: Nakamura Shikan II as Saimon'ya Keijûrô (西門屋啓十郎, left), Ichikawa Ebizo V as the boatman Musashiya no Matsu (船頭武蔵屋の松, center), and Iwai Tojaku as the geisha (藝者) Takane (or Tagane) no Oren (たかねのおれん, right)

Play: This triptych is a mitate of Bakin’s Shinpen Kinpeibai (The Plum in the Golden Vase, a New Version)

Date: 11th month of 1832

Publisher: Izumi-ya Ichibei 

 

I am grateful to Robert Pryor for the above information.

Actors: Nakamura Shikan II as the monk Ikkyû Taro (一休太郎, left), Segawa Kikunojô V as the courtesan Jigoku-dayu (けいせい地ごく太夫, center), and Seki Sanjûrô II as Nozarashi Gosuke (のざらし吾助, right) 

Play: This is a mitate, meaning that it is an imaginary theatrical scene that was never actually performed on stage

Date: c. 1831-1832

Publisher: Shin'ise-ya Kohei

 

NOTE: Jigoku-dayu is known as the “Lady from Hell”, and her kimono is decorated with scenes of Hell.  The upper right corner of this triptych is inscribed mitate (見立), indicating that these actors did not actually perform these roles together on stage.  The right sheet is signed 一勇斎 國よし (Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga), with the “yoshi” character written in hiragana as よし instead of the usual .  I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan for information about this triptych.

Actor: Mitate (見立) of Bandô Mitsugorô III as Yawata Saburô (坂東 三津五郎, left) and Onoe Kikugorô III as Ômi Kotôta (尾上菊五郎, right)

Play: This is a mitate, meaning that it is an imaginary theatrical scene that was never actually performed on stage

Date: c. 1832

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Shôzô

 

I am grateful to Lucienne Parkan for information about this diptych.

Actor: Nakamura Shikan II as Honda Hyatanosuke (本田隼人之助) or possibly Honda Hyato no Suke

Play:

Date: c. 1830-1832

Publisher: Kawaguchi-ya Shôzô

 

 I am grateful to Robert Pryor for this image.

Actor: Iwai Tojaku as Kiyokawa (清川) with giant anchor

Play:

Date: c. 1833-1836

Publisher: Maru-ya Seijirô

 

 I am grateful to Robert Pryor for this image.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART II