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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Katsukawa, Shunsho Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese Creator Role: Artist Creator Dates/Places: Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Active Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Name-CRT: Katsukawa Shunsho Title: The actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as Sakata Hyogonosuke Kintoki in the play Shitenno Tonoi no Kisewata (Raiko's Four Intrepid Retainers in the Costume of the Night Watch) Title Type: preferred View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1781 Creation End Date: 1781 Creation Date: Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1781 Creation Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Object Type: Prints Classification Term: Woodblock Materials and Techniques: Woodblock print. Dimensions: Hosoban; 32.0 x 14.8 cm Inscriptions: SIGNATURE: Shansho ga AMICA Contributor: The Art Institute of Chicago Owner Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA ID Number: 1949.38 Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection Rights: http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html Context: The opening-of-the-season (kaomise) play at the Nakamura Theater in the eleventh month of 1781 was set in the tenth-century 'world' (sekai) of the warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu (better known as Raiko, d. 1021) and his four dauntless retainers, whose intrepidity earned them the collective sobriquet 'Four Heavenly Kings' (Shitenno): Watanabe no Tsuna, Sakata no Kintoki, Usui no Sadamitsu, and Urabe no Suetake. Ichikawa Danjuro V appears here as Kintoki, a massive, lowering presence in voluminous black robes with sleeves like great kites, on which the character kin is writ large in white.Raiko and his retainers were common characters in opening-of-the season productions, which also traditionally offered a 'Shibaraku' (Stop right there!) interlude in part one, act three. The novelty of this production was to play the 'Shibaraku' role not as a male hero but as an evil woman (acted by Segawa Kikunojo III).The drama presented a version of the legend in which Raiko and his followers subdue the monster Earth Spider (Tsuchi-gumo). The spirit of this monster spider of Mt. Katsuragi appears here in the form of a beautiful woman, Joro-gumo (Harlot Spider), first wearing the large robes and court hat of the 'Shibaraku' role, then shedding these to reveal the costume of a voluptuous maiko (young geisha in training), Tsumagiku, who wishes to dance for the entertainment of Lord Raiko. This is the scene depicted in the program. Segawa Kikunojo III, who kneels in the bottom left-hand corner holding a decoration on a stand,wears a kimono with long hanging sleeves (furisode) decorated with the 'crane rhombus' (tsuru-bishi) pattern normally found on a man's 'Shibaraku' costume. Her approach is challenged by Raiko's four retainers, each wearing a wide-shouldered suo jacket decorated with his large crest (mon). Danjuro V as Kintoki stands foremost, posed very much as in our print. Though he is accoutered with the fan and hair decorations of the male 'Shibaraku' role, in this production the action of the role is performed by his female foe.At the top of the stair sits Lord Raiko (played by Sawamura Sojuro III), clearly bewitched by the dancing of the lovely Tsumagiku and reciprocating her gesture with his sake cup. Above the sake cup, however, as yet unnoticed by the warriors, hangs a spider. This reminds the audience that the true identity of the dancer will be revealed, and her plans thwarted, when Raiko sees her reflected in the sake cup- in her true form of an evil spider!A comparison between the program illustration and the print of Danjuro V demonstrates forcefully Shunsho's genius for refining a complex stage tableau into a design of enormous graphic power. Indeed the black robes, with folds picked out in white reserve, not only fill the composition but virtually take ona life of their own. Only the challenging stance, and Danjuro V's angular features appearing out of the kimono like a blade half drawn from its sheath, remind us of the redoubtable warrior within the robes. Louis Ledoux named the print, quite simply, TheBlack Danjuro.Shunsho's pupil Shunjo designed a magnificent five-sheet hosoban showing Segawa Kikunojo III as Tsumagiku flanked by Raiko's four retainers in this performance, very close in style to Shunsho's own work. AMICA ID: AIC_.1949.38 AMICA Library Year: 1998 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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