Komochi-e (trick pictures)

 

Komochi-e (子持絵) or trick pictures are prints with movable printed paper flaps or other moveable parts.  Multicolor komochi-e may be called komochi nishiki-e (子持錦絵).  The images below show a single print with the flaps in different positions.

 

Actors: Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as Tamiya Iemon (神谷仁右衛門)

Play: Manete Mimasu yotsuya no kikigaki (当三升四谷聞書, Ghost stories at Yotsuya)

Date: 9th month of 1848 (censors Hama and Kinugasa)

Theater: Ichimura

Publisher: Sano-ya Kihei

 

NOTE: In this play, Kamiya Niemon is married to Oiwa, but falls in love with another woman.  He poisons his wife who dies an agonizing death resulting in facial deformity.  Niemon’s servant Kohei is on to what his master has done.  Niemon kills him too and nails both of their bodies to a door and throws it into the Onbô Canal. 

Actors: Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as Tamiya Iemon (神谷仁右衛門)

Play: Manete Mimasu yotsuya no kikigaki (当三升四谷聞書, Ghost stories at Yotsuya)

Date: 9th month of 1848 (censors Muramatsu and Yoshimura)

Theater: Ichimura

Publisher: 

Actors: Matsumoto Koshirô V as Satô Yomoshichi

Play: Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan (東海道四谷怪談)

Date: 7th month of 1836

Theater: Morita

Publisher: Tsuru-ya Kiyemon

Actors: Left sheet: Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Princess Nowake’s ghost (野分姫亡魂, standing) and Fujikawa Kaju III as the girl Okumi (永楽屋娘おくみ, kneeling)

Right sheet: Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII as 成田八郎親孝 (inset), Bandô Shûka I as 渡守大和屋お秀 (standing), Sawamura Gennosuke III as Yoshida Matsuwakamaru (吉田松若丸, kneeling in foreground)

Play: Tsuma Mukae Iro no fumizuki (妻迎艶文月)

Date: 6th month of 1848 (censors Mera and Murata)

Theater: Ichimura

Publisher: Ningyô-ya Takichi

 

NOTE: A paper flap (shikake, 仕掛け) is missing from the above print.  The image below shows how raising the flap makes the ghost appear.

From the ehon (picture book), The Matsu Fuji Weir in Kyûshû (Tsukushi matsu fuji no shigarami, 筑紫松藤柵), published in 1826, Volume 1, pages 4 and 5.  The above image shows several scenes from kabuki plays without frank eroticism.  However, pages 4 and 5 have flaps that may be lifted to reveal shunga (erotic pictures).  The 4 following illustrations show the same pages with the flaps in different positions. 

From the ehon (picture book), The Matsu Fuji Weir in Kyûshû

(Tsukushi matsu fuji no shigarami, 筑紫松藤柵), published in 1830.  The above image shows a man and two women playing sugoroku. The following image shows the same scene with the printed paper flap lifted.

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