Hirosada bamboo and sparrows

JAPANESE PRINTS

A MILLION QUESTIONS

TWO MILLION MYSTERIES

Ukiyo-e Prints

浮世絵版画

Port Townsend, Washington

UTAGAWA HIROSADA

歌川広貞

うたがわひろさだ

(fl. 1819-65)

Actor: Kataoka Gadô

片岡我童

かたおかがどう

Role: Ashikaga Yorikane

足利頼錦

あしかがよりかね

Play: Meiboku Sendai Hagi (?)(

(Kataoka Gadô is known to have performed the role of Ashikaga Yorikane at the Chikugo no Shibai in Osaka in the third month of 1848.)

伽羅先代萩

めいぼくせんだいはぎ

Date: 3rd Month, 1848

Kaei 1

嘉永1

Print Size: 10" x 7 1/8"

Mat Size: 20" x 16"

Publisher: Kawaoto

川音

かわおと

(This is new information provided by one of our correspondents, E., and double checked by us. Prior to this the publisher was listed as unknown. Thanks E!)

Condition: Good color, brown stain on embossed sword hilt plus minor soiling and a thin spot on the left outside of the image. Unbacked. Professionally hinged and matted.

ORIGINALLY $285.00

NOW $190.00

ILLUSTRATED

1. There is an on-line image of this print at Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University. This site is a bit difficult to navigate until you get used to it. It is completely in Japanese so after you enter the site and click on the 'Search' link -in English - at the bottom of the page copy and paste an artist's name in kanji from our site into the first box at the top of the page.

2. Catalogue of Japanese Art in The National Gallery, Prague, p. 135, #806.

BAMBOO AND SPARROWS
竹		雀
たけ		すずめ

Bamboo and sparrow motif on a robe design ca. 1805.	Bamboo and sparrow motif on the kimono by Toyokuni III ca. 1860		Bamboo and sparrow motif by Kunisada ca. 1830 on a hand towel draped over a low screen.

TAKESUZUME
The actor playing the role of Ashikaga Yorikane (足利頼錦) is easily identifiable because his robe is often decorated either with sparrows or bamboo and sparrows combined. The pairing of these two elements is used on the crest (mon - 紋 or もん) of the Date clan. However, this motif does not always guarantee the absolute identification of this figure because we have seen a Kuniyoshi with a beautiful woman standing on a beach and wearing clothing with the same design. Perhaps this is an obtuse allusion to Yorikane, but at this point proving it is beyond our scholarship. Students of art history are familiar with such iconographic short cuts: a man on a cross is usually Jesus (イエス); a man being barbecued on a grill is St. Lawrence (セントローレンス); a man studiously reading with a docile lion lying nearby is St. Jerome (サンジェローム); a woman standing by a wheel with blade like spikes coming out of it is St. Catherine of Alexandria (セントカサリン.アレグザンドリア) and so on. Similar cues can be found in both sacred and profane Asian art. John W. Dower in The Elements of Japanese Design (p. 99) states: "Like the lion and peony...the sparrow is commonly depicted with bamboo. The association is a natural one, since flocks of sparrows commonly alight in the bamboo groves..." Merrily Baird in Symbols of Japan (pp. 118-119) notes that there are early poetic references to sparrows and bamboo. "The bird is said to be obsessed with its honor, especially the repaying of debts.... Nearly three dozen family crests are based on the sparrow."