Utagawa Kuniyoshi

1797-1861

Famous Places in Edo Selected for the Twelve Months: 6th month, Nakamura Utaemon IV as Danshichi Kurobei
(Edo meisho mitate junikagetsu no uchi: roku juni, Nakamura Utaemon, Danshichi Kurobei)

signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga within gourd-shaped cartouche and with Yoshi Kiri seal, with carvers seal Horiko Takichi, publisher's seal Kato (Yahataya Sakujiro), censor seals Kingusa and Murata, zodiac date seal Ne-hachi (year of the rat [1852], 8th month), 1852

oban tate-e 14 by 9 3/4 in., 35.7 by 24.9 cm

This print depicts a posthumous portrait of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV (1796-1852) in the role of Danshichi Kurobei from the play Zoho Naniwa Kagami (Expanded Mirror of Osaka). It was issued six months after Utaemon's death in the 2nd lunar month of 1852, and illustrates the actor in a role he had portrayed seven years earlier, in the 7th lunar month of 1845 at the Nakamura-za in Edo. The sword blade incorporated into the right edge of the title cartouche alludes to the heirloom sword named 'Niji Yoshimitsu' from the play.

Provenance:
Charles H. Mitchell (ukiyo-e collector and scholar)
B. W. Robinson, former Keeper of the Far Eastern Section, Victoria & Albert Museum, and author of Kuniyoshi: the Warrior Prints, 1982

Published (this impression):
Robert Schaap, Heroes & Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi, 1797-1861, 1998, p. 168, no. 179 (erroneously identified as Danshichi Mohei from the play Yadonashi Danshichi shigure no karakasa)

(inv. no. 10-4885)

price: Sold