Background
The play was an adaptation specifically rewritten in kamigata style for Onoe Kikugorô III, an Edo-kabuki
superstar who visited Osaka in 1826. It was based on an 1825 masterpiece by the playwright Tsuruya Nanboku IV, titled
Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan ("Ghost Story at Yotsuya on the Tôkaidô"). Iemon,
Oiwa's husband and a down-on-his-luck rônin reduced to making oil-paper umbrellas, despairs over his
ill fortune, made worse by Oiwa, who is struggling in her postpartum convalescence and nursing a newborn child. He finds
temptation in a neighbor's young daughter named Oume, and is persuaded by her grandfather to give Oiwa a
"medicinal potion" — actually a poison — meant to disfigure her so that Iemon will divorce
her. Oiwa drinks the potion and her face takes on a monstrous countenance. Soon after, she dies in an accident brought
on by jealousy and rage. Her ghost relentlessly haunts Iemon, tracking him down in a hermitage at Hebiyama ("Snake
Mountain") where he is taking refuge. He is finally slain by another rônin and the sister of a servant
he has murdered.
Design
Ghost prints (obake-e) are relatively uncommon in Osaka printmaking. The drawing and printing of Oiwa's specter
appears as if painted in washes of monochrome ink. The spirit flame, ethereal form of Oiwa (including the absence of
feet), and the blue bands of face makeup all combine to evoke death and the supernatural.
The inscription was written by the actor Kikugorô, who says that his father's interpretation of the role was
quite popular, and so he has been asked to perform it. He signs himself as Baikô (his haimyô).
There are at least three editions of this well-known design. The first can be identified by the metallic pigment for the
inscription, the cartouches of the block cutter (horikô Kasuke] and two printers (surikô Matsumura
and dô Hanji), and the dark area of the gradated background extending below the actor's waist. The second edition
[as in our impression] retains the metallic pigments but with the cutter/printer cartouche omitted and the dark band in the
background running along the top. The third edition, possibly late, shows evidence of lackluster printing and has the inscription
printed in black.
The original design included a right-hand sheet printed only with the gradated background, suggesting an eerie night scene at
Snake Mountain. It is rarely found, with or without the left sheet. Our right sheet is a later replacement on twentieth-century paper. We include it to provide some idea
of the original diptych while acknowledging that the sheet was added later. Furthermore, we are aware of speculation regarding
a third (far-right) sheet, but none has ever surfaced, and we remain unconvinced that the composition was ever published as a
triptych.
References: IKBYS-I, no. 165; WAS I-4 , nos. 278-279; TWOP, pl. 34; KUN, no. 78; IKB-I, no. 1-444; KNP-6, p. 136; NKE, p. 651
Return to