Surimono of actors,

Part I

 

I am grateful to Ward Pieters for assisting with this section.

 

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor as a seated beauty holding cat against her bosom, Inset-theater program

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô VI as a seated beauty holding a cat against her bosom, with poems by Ryuotei Gijutsu and Ryukwayen Suien

Inset: A theater program and ticket

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.2

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a stylized snowflake (yukiwa, 雪輪)

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Iwai Hanshirô V seated by a hibachi with tobacco pipe; buckets filled with fish in in inset, c

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô V seated by a hibachi with tobacco pipe

Inset: buckets filled with fish

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.3

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a full moon.

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor in the role of a seated geisha playing the shamisen

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III in the role of a seated geisha playing the shamisen

Inset: A set of boxes upon a plaited basket on a yoke

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.1

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a flower.

Kuniyoshi - (surimono) untitled series of Snow, Moon, and Flowers, Snow, Iwai Kumesaburô II

 

Series: A Set of Three (Sanbantsuzuki, 三番続)

Title: Snow

Description: Actor Iwai Kumesaburô II in a female role standing on a bank of the Sumida River with an umbrella in the snow, with a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.a.6.2 (listed as a bijin surimono)

Kuniyoshi - (surimono) untitled series of Snow, Moon, and Flowers, Moon, Iwai Tojaku I

 

Series: A Set of Three (Sanbantsuzuki, 三番続)

Title: Moon

Description: Actor Iwai Tojaku I in a female role seated by a shôji screen resting his hands on a long pipe, with a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.a.6.1 (listed as a bijin surimono)

 

Description: A geisha squatting by the balustrade of a veranda

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date:

Schaap: 2.d.1.6

 

NOTESchaap suggests that this may be a portrait of the kabuki actor Iwai Hanshirô VI.  The figure hidden behind the shoji wearing the kiku (chrysanthemum) mon may be Onoe Kikugorô III.  I am grateful to Robert Pryor for the image. 

Kuniyoshi - (surimono) untitled series of Snow, Moon, and Flowers, Flowers, Onoe Kikugorô III

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Title: Flowers

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III in a female role holding a fan and seated on a mat under a flowering cherry tree, with  a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1830

Schaap: 2.d.1.7

 

Image courtesy of Richard Illing

Kuniyoshi - (surimono) untitled series of Snow, Moon, and Flowers, Flowers, Onoe Kikugorô III (alt)

 

Another state of the above print in which the blue of the sky does not reach the top

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Onoe Kikugorô III reclining in a boat with a pipe in his hand

 

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III reclining in a boat with a pipe in his hand

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: 1825

Schaap: 2.1

 

NOTE: This surimono was issued by the Hananari-shachû (Hananari Circle).  The poem is signed Ryûkaen, and the inscription is signed Ryûôtei Gijutsu.

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Arajishi Otokonosuke in 'Meiboku sendai hagi'

 

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII in the role of Arashishi Otokonosuke seated on a stool with a iron war-fan between his teeth in a scene from the kabuki play Meiboku Sendai hagi.  There is a white rat in a bat-shaped cartouche in the top right corner, and two poems are inscribed above.

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Printer: Surikô Shinzô

Date: 1830

Schaap: 2.2

 

Description: Actor Nakamura Utaemon IV performing a dance on a hobbyhorse

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date:

Schaap: 2.3

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII kneeling in a performance of Shibaraku with his long sword upright to the left

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII kneeling in a performance of Shibaraku with his long sword upright to the left 

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1837-1838

Schaap: 2.4

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as a lord holding a raised sword in his left hand and holding on to an opponents lance which he is pressing down to the ground

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as a lord holding a raised sword in his left hand and holding on to a constable’s lance, which he is pressing down to the ground

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: Early 1830s

Schaap: 2.5

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as a lord holding a raised sword in his left hand and holding on to an opponents lance which he is pressing down to the ground (Alt

 

I am grateful to Marc DeVriese for this variant state of the above surimono

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as a lord holding a raised sword in his left hand and holding on to an opponents lance which he is pressing down to the ground (Alt.)

 

Yet another state of the above surimono with a different poem in the left upper corner

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Benkei battling actor Iwai Shiaku in the role of Yoshitsune , early 1830s

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Benkei battling actor Iwai Shijaku I (or Iwai Kumesaburô II) as the young Yoshitsune

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1829-1832

Schaap: 2.6

 

I am grateful to and Lucienne Parkan for this alternate state of the above design.

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Two battledores with portraits of actors Sawamura Tosshô as Soga no Jûrô (R) & Bandô Shûka as his mistress Maizuru (L)

 

Description: Two battledores with portraits of actors Sawamura Tosshô I as Soga no Jûrô (right) and Bandô Shûka as his mistress Maizuru (left)

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.7

 

 

Description: Popular actors in costume

Size: Aiban (about 13 by 9 inches or 34.5 by 22.5 centimeters)

Date: 1847-1850 (censors Mera and Murata)

Schaap: Not listed

Publisher: Mikawa-ya Denbei

 

 

Schaap” refers to listing in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi by Robert Schaap (Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 1998).

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART II

 

KuniyoshiProject