Copy-book of Loyalty

(Chûkô tenarai-zôshi, 忠孝手習艸紙)

Publisher: Kazusa-ya Iwazô

1846

This ôban sized (about 14 by 10 inches or 36 by 25 centimeters) sheet is listed in Robinson as S41.1, with “Copy-book of Loyalty” assumed to be the title of a series. However, it turns out that the sheet is part of a triptych, and not a series.

Scene: The loyal farmer Shiradayû (百姓白太夫) weeping as he holds up a tray bearing an unsheathed sword Robinson: S41.1

Triptych title: Copy-book of Loyalty (Chûkô tenarai-zôshi, 忠孝手習艸紙) Actors: Ichikawa Shinsha I as Sakuramaru’s wife (nyobo) Yae (女房八重, left), Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as Toneri Sakuramaru (舎人桜丸, center), and Bandô Hikosaburô IV as the peasant Shiradayû (百姓白太夫, right)　 Play: Tenmangû wakaba no koaishu (天満宮緑梅松桜) Date: 5^th month of 1846 (censor Watanabe Shôemon) Theater: Kawarasaki Publisher: Kazusa-ya Iwazô

“Robinson” refers to listing in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1982) and its privately published supplement.

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