Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Lady Iwafuji and Segawa Kikunojō V as Ohatsu

Information

Title Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Lady Iwafuji and Segawa Kikunojō V as Ohatsu Tsubone Iwafuji Ichikawa Danjūrō Ohatsu Segawa Kikunojō 局岩藤 市川團十郎 おはつ 瀬川菊之
Artist Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) 歌川国貞 (三代目豊国) (1786–1865)
Date 1831
Play Botan ni chō hatsu ga fumibako
Theatre Kawarasaki
Publisher Kawaguchiya Shōzō (Shōeidō) 川口屋正蔵 (正栄堂)
City Edo
Signature Gototei Kunisada ga 五渡亭国貞画
Censorship seal(s) kiwame 極
Publisher’s seal(s) Kawa-Shō 川正
Technique & material Woodblock print; full colour print; pigment on paper
Format ōban diptych
Width 25.9 cm (R); 25.8 cm (M)
Height 38.2 cm (both sheets)
Object number SH2018-DM-047
Credit Line Gift of Muck and Mieke Douma
Provenance Gifted to the Japan Museum SieboldHuis in April 2018 by Muck and Mieke Douma

Description

The inscription above the actors contains the dialogue of this particular scene. A reissue of this same design exists, also published by Kawaguchiya Shōzō, in which the two actors are replaced by Bandō Mitsugorō (Iwafuji) and Nakamura Shikan (Ohatsu). They played the roles some ten years later in the play Sakura-doki onna gyōretsu. In this later edition the faces and names, including those given in the dialogue, are changed. Remarkably, in this later edition Kunisada's signature is replaced by that of his fellow Utagawa school member Kuniyoshi (1798-1861). Kuniyoshi also created a triptych of this play in 1832 for Kawaguchiya's publishing firm Shōeidō.