March 2021

Color woodblock print, with mica background: ōban tate-e, 14¾ x 10 in. (37.5 x 25.4 cm); 1815
Series: Greatest Hit Plays (Ōatari kyōgen no uchi) 
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Uhei (Fukusendō)

The actor Onoe Matsusuke II (1784−1849)—he became Kikugorō III in 1815—was the adopted son of Onoe Shōroku. From Shōroku he learned the quick-change techniques needed to play ghosts, and Kikugorō soon established a reputation as a specialist in the sub-group of vengeful spirits. These parts were often written for him by his friend, the playwright Tsuruya Namboku IV. Kikugorō’s quick-change technique became so adept that he was able to take up to nine roles in the same production.

Color woodblock print, with mica background: ōban tate-e, 15¼ x 10½ in. (38.7 x 26.7 cm); 1815
Series:  Greatest Hit Plays (Ōatari kyōgen no uchi)Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Kawaguchiya Uhei (Fukusendō)

Ichikawa Danjūrō VII appears in the role of Kan Shōjō in the Mount Tenpai scene of an updated version, by Tsuruya Nanboku IV, of what was now a classic early-eighteenth century play— Sugawara’s Secrets of Calligraphy (Sugawara denju tenarai kagami)—entitled Sekai no hana Sugawara denju. The play debuted at the kaomise performances held at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month of 1814.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15¼ x 10⅜ in. (38.4 x 26.4 cm); circa 1822
Series: The Thirty-two Contemporary Types (Tōsei sanjūnisō)
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Artist’s seal: toshidama in matsukawa-bishi 
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Nishinomiya Shinroku (Gangetsudō)

The daughter of a wealthy merchant sits, focussed on constructing a duster from strips of scrap paper and a bamboo rod, using her teeth to tauten the string she bites on to knot the paper in place. She is dressed in a stylish tea-green kimono with her family’s crest on its shoulders and sleeves. Her outfit is accented by expensive tie-dyed fabrics in red and purple that she uses for her obi and undergarments, as well as her hairbands. Her elaborate hairdo is further embellished with silver foil ornaments decorated with flowers and miniature bells, paper ties, and tortoiseshell combs. Obviously dressed to go out to enjoy herself with friends, she seems slightly irritated to find herself indoors, doing household chores.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15⅝ x 10¼ in. (39.7 x 26.0 cm); circa 1822−23
Series: Fashionable Makeup Mirrors (Imafu keshō kagami)
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Azumaya Daisuke (Kinshūdō)

Married women in Edo Japan shaved their eyebrows and blackened their teeth. Here, a chic young housewife is performing the intimate task of carefully shaving her eyebrows, as seen reflected in her hand mirror. She wears a simple tortoiseshell comb in her hair, along with metal pins, their caps formed as stylized flowerheads of the same shape as her family crest, which appears on her shoulder. Her fashionable robe is decorated with a minute honeycomb pattern with a black silk collar and purple, pink, and magenta-hued underrobes.

Color woodblock print with metallic pigments: shikishiban surimono, 8 x 7 in. (20.3 x 17.8 cm); circa 1822
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Artist’s seal: Sada

Setsubun, a festival marking winter’s end, is celebrated by throwing roasted beans to cast out demons from homes and the precincts of temples. Danjūrō VII, dressed in the exaggerated costume of Kamakura Gongorō, holds a tray with a box of beans in his left hand.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15½ x 10⅜ in. (39.4 x 26.4 cm); circa 1829
Series: Contest of Modern Beauties (Tōsei bijin awase)
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Moritaya Hanzō

Women in front of makeup mirrors was a theme first explored by ukiyo-e artists in the eighteenth century, with many extant examples by Kitagawa Utamaro and others. Here, the presence of the makeup stand is implied rather than visible, its only indication being the small porcelain cup with white powder at bottom left. This beautiful woman is checking the application of her skin powder in a hand mirror held behind her, which reveals the nape of her neck—considered a highly erogenous zone in Edo Japan for its resemblance to the shape of Mount Fuji. In this way, Kunisada has simultaneously provided the viewer with both of this city geisha’s most attractive sides. She seems to be preparing to go out on assignment; her shamisen is carefully packed in a wrapping cloth, along with extra strings in a round box as depicted in the fan-shaped cartouche above her, next to the title cartouche.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15¼ x 10¼ in. (38.7 x 26 cm); circa 1834–36
Series: Six Fashionable Jewel-like Faces (Tōsei mu tamagao)
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Moritaya Hanzō

A beautiful young woman is out on a boating excursion on a summer evening. She is dressed in a lightweight white cotton robe decorated with blue roundels formed of gibbons pulling their tails. Seated beneath a rolled, dried-reed curtain (sudare), she leans out over the side of the boat, observing the passing scene as she snacks on salted edamame, a popular summer treat. With carefully dressed hair and smart summer outfit, she epitomizes the fashionable woman of the early Tenpō era.

Color woodblock print: ōban yoko-e,10 x 14⅞ in. (37.8 x 25.7 cm); circa 1832
Untitled series of ten landscapes 
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Yamaguchiya Tōbei (Kinkōdō)

A woman dressed in the costume of a shirabyōshi dancer raises a folding fan as she sits in a boat beneath a willow tree on the Asazuma inlet of Lake Biwa, to the northeast of Kyoto. Shirabyōshi were originally Japanese female entertainers in the Heian and Kamakura periods, who sang songs and performed dances. They danced dressed as men in clothing based on court hunting outfits of the time and were celebrated even in classical poetry. But by the early Edo period, the term had become synonymous with a cheap type of boat prostitute available on the lakeshore.

Hanging scroll: ink and color on silk, 35½ x 12⅝ in. (90.3 x 32.0 cm); circa 1833
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga
Artist’s seal: Hanabusa Ittai

 The actor, with an alert expression on his face, is seated in a formal pose in his persimmon brown kamishimo over a black robe and blue-gray underrobes. He rests his hands on his knees, and in one, clasps a folding fan. A single sword is thrust through his sash. Four mimasu crests of the Ichikawa family of actors appear on his shoulders and sleeves. Ichikawa Sōdai, referred to in the inscription, was the name Ōmezo took following his retirement from the stage in 1824, and he is given this moniker in Kunisada’s Yakusha natsu no Fuji of 1828.

Hanging scroll: ink and color on silk, 40 x 11⅝ in. (101.6 x 29.5 cm); ca. 1838‒40
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga
Artist’s seal: Kōgetsu senri (Under a clear moon, one can see for miles)

The low-lying districts to the east of the Sumida were bisected by numerous canals, drainage ditches and small rivers, permitting discrete access by boat to the restaurants and unlicensed geisha houses that dotted the area. Geisha bidding farewell to their clients or arriving at assignations became a well-known trope of beauty prints and paintings.

Hanging scroll: ink and light color on silk woven with a keyfret design, 36¼ x 14 in. (92.1 x 35.6 cm); Koka/Kaei eras, 1844–1854
Signed: Toyokuni ga
Artist’s seal: Toyokuni-Sada in
Poem signed: Takurō; sealed: Kozan 

Throughout his long life Kunisada often participated in poetry and painting parties (shogakkai). Famous from early in his career, the artist used such occasions to meet friends, mingle with other celebrities from the worlds of art, theater, and literature, interact with clients and business colleagues, associate with patrons, and demonstrate his skills in public. His contribution would have been on-the-spot paintings on fans, or on odd scraps of paper and silk. Attendees would receive these as tokens of esteem on payment of a fee that passed to the organizer. Some of these meets were grand occasions while others were smaller, more intimate affairs. Judging from the poem and inscription by Takurō inscribed here, with its theme of the Sumida River in moonlight, this impromptu painting was made for one such intimate occasion. A smartly dressed and smiling female entertainer is about to enjoy a porcelain cup of sake at a festive gathering during, or just after, a summer moon-viewing excursion on the river. Of note is the way Kunisada has employed the woven surface of the textile known as rinzu, a silk-satin damask commonly used for kimono in the Edo period, to suggest the pattern of the woman’s robes.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 14½ x 9⅞ in. (36.8 x 25.1 cm); 10/1852
Series: An Imaginary Thirty-six Poets (Mitate sanjūrokkasen no uchi) Signed: Toyokuni ga within toshidama cartouche
Censor’s seals: Muramatsu (Muramatsu Genroku); Fuku (Fukushima Wajūro)
Blockcutter: Yokogawa hori Take (Yokogawa Takejirō)
Publisher: Iseya Kanekichi 

The story of the depraved prelate Seigen, who developed a mad passion for the beautiful maiden Sakurahime (Princess Cherry Blossom)—whom he took as the reincarnation of a former lover, and for whom he broke his vows of chastity—was first adapted to Kabuki during the 1670s. The tale was a popular one and many versions of the basic plot were created. In 1805 Santō Kyōden (1761–1816) published the ghost story Sakurahime zenden akebonozōshi (The Book of Dawn: The Complete Story of Princess Cherry Blossom), in which the priest is rejected by Sakurahime, goes insane, and is expelled from the Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto. He then starves himself to death and haunts the young woman until she dies of fright.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15¼ x 10¼in. (38.7 x 26 cm); 7/1863
Series:  Untitled Series of Ōkubi-e of Actors Past and Present
Signed: Nanajūhassai Toyokuni ga within toshidama cartouche
Censor’s seal: combined date andaratame (certified)
Blockcutter: Horikō Ryūzō (Kiyomizu Ryūzō)
Publisher: Ebisuya Shōshichi (Kinshōdō) 

Here Danjūrō V is shown as Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo, in the play Hatsumonbi Yosooi Soga performed at the Kawarazaki Theater in 2/1802, opposite Ichikawa Omezō as Soga Gorō, Bandō Mitsugorō III as Soga Jūrō, and Osagawa Tsuneyo II as Akoya. This was Danjūrō V’s final performance on the Edo stage.

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e,15½ x 10⅜in. (39.4 x 26.4 cm); 7/1863
Series:  Untitled Series of Ōkubi-e of Actors Past and Present
Signed: Nanajūhassai Toyokuni ga within toshidama cartouche
Censor’s seal: combined date andaratame
Blockcutter: Horikō Ryūzō (Kiyomizu Ryūzō)
Publisher: Ebisuya Shōshichi (Kinshōdō)

Sawamura Sōjūrō III (1753–1801), depicted here, was born in Edo and was an acclaimed child actor who made his debut under the name Tanosuke I, in 1759. He became Sōjūrō III after the death of his father in 1771. He was a popular leading man in both Edo and the Kamigata region, and in 1790, became the manager of the Ichimura theater in Edo. From that position he persuaded the great Kabuki dramatist Namiki Gohei I to come to Edo, whereupon the writer created several roles for his patron in plays such as Suda no Haru Geisha Katagi, which premiered at the Kiri Theater in the New Year of 1796.