JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION MYSTERIES
Ukiyo-e Prints
浮世絵版画
|
Port Townsend, Washington |
|
SHUNBAISAI HOKUEI
春梅斉
北英
しゅんばいさい
ほくえい |
|
|
fl. 1829-1837 |
|
|
Nakamura Utaemon III
中村歌右衛門三代
as Kumagai Jiro Naozane
熊 谷 次 郎 直 実 |
|
|
Play: "Chronicle of the battle of
Ichinotani"
Ichinotani futaba gunki
一谷嫩軍記
いちたにふたばぐんき |
|
|
One source identifies this play as
Suma no Miyako (Genpei Tsutsuji)
須磨都源平躑躅
すまのみやこ (げんぺいつつじ) |
|
|
Date: 1835, 11th Month |
|
|
Size: 14 3/4"
x 10 1/4" |
|
|
Signature: Shunbaisai
Hokuei ga
春梅斉北英
しゅんばいさいほくえい |
|
|
Publisher: Honsei (Honya
Seishichi)
夲清
ほんせい |
|
|
SOLD!
|
|
|
|
春梅斎 |
しゅんばいさい |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
夲清
|
ほんせい |
|
北英画 |
Signature:
Shunbaisai Hokuei
ga |
ほくえい |
|
|
|
|
Honsei
Publisher's mark |
|
|
A strange
property of this image is the curly gray highlights of the hair. This
appears in several other examples of this figure, but nowhere else that
I know of. We may have more to say on this matter later. |
|
|
|
Nakamura Utaemon
III and the Osaka Stage |
|
Utaemon was the hottest thing to hit the Osaka stage in the early decades of
the nineteenth century. His career coincided with the development of the
oban actor print. Capable of performing both male and female roles his
imagery came to dominate the majority of prints being produced for quite
some time. Not only did he perform in his home base of Osaka, but he also
was an influence in Edo. However, his time spent in the shogun's capitol was
not exactly smooth. Competing fans of other actors brawled with Utaemon's
devotees to the point that some of them had to be arrested. In Fact, Utaemon
suffered a shiner from one such encounter. When he left Edo before the end
of his contract he described it as "leaving the darkness for the light of
day." In time he was forced to return to Edo to complete his agreement, but
this time he showed up in disguise as his own fictitious twin brother
Nakamura Shikan (中村芝翫 or なかむらしガン).* |
|
"Edo's loss was Osaka's
gain"
His fans turned out in
droves to welcome him home in 1815. His reception was said to be more
spectacular than Osaka's greatest festival. Imitation and groveling were not
uncommon: at one restaurant the staff wore Utaemon's favorite color;
pastries called tsuru-bishi (鶴菱 or つるびし) were modelled on his family crest of a
crane within a lozenge shape; "One merchant insisted that his clients cover
any wild orange-blossom crests that might appear on their robes" because
that motif was used by one of Utaemon's chief rivals.
Utaemon was a capable and
popular writer of poetry and plays and was connected with the other literary
figures of Osaka. |
|
Source
Material for the information found above comes from Osaka Prints,
Dean J. Schwaab, Rizzoli, 1989, pp. 20-22. |
|
*When I
read about Utaemon's attempted ruse to come back as his supposed twin
brother Nakamura shikan to ease his safe return onto the Edo stage I
was reminded of the circumstances surrounding the screen death of one of the
popular characters of the "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" television show in
the late 70s. Garth Gimbel, played by Martin Mull (マルティン.マル), was an abusive husband
who died after his wife shoved him into a closet to slow his attack. Little
did we know that he would be impaled on an old, fake Christmas tree. As I
recall there was such an outcry from the fans that sometime later Mull was
brought back as the deceased Garth's twin brother Barth who went on to a
successful career as the host of his own television talk show.
Even Shakespeare was not above such switcheroos. Why not
Nakamura Utaemon and his brother Barth...er, I mean, Nakamura Shikan?
|
|
"Despite his
short stature, husky voice, and unprepossessing looks, his great skill,
inventive methods, and exceeding cleverness bowled audiences over in Edo,
Kyoto, and Osaka."
Quoted
from: New Kabuki Encyclopedia: A Revised Adaptation of kabuki jiten,
Samuel L. Leiter, Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 451. |
|