Background
Immediately north of the canal alongside Osaka's Dôtonbori theater district was an area called Shimanouchi (島之内), the city's largest unofficial pleasure quarter. Shimanouchi hosted an annual parade each summer featuring waitresses, geisha, and courtesans dressed in costumes while performing skits or pantomimes about well-known figures from contemporary society, theater, history, and legend. In this colorful pageant the women were accompanied by decorative floats carrying musicians and dancers.
In the summer of 1836 a collaborative series of ôban nishiki-e was published, designed by Sadahiro, Hokuei, Sadanobu I, Shigeharu, and Hokuju to commemorate the parade.
Design
Kamiagata-e are overwhelmingly images of actors from the kabuki theater (yakusha-e, actor prints: 役者絵). Among the most notable exceptions are the bijinga (beautiful women prints: 美人画) inspired by various nerimono (costume parades) in Osaka and Kyoto. Prints commemorating the Gion nerimono parade in Kyoto enjoyed popularity around 1812-1835, but their format was hososban and they were kappazuri-e (stencil prints: 合羽摺絵). Osaka flirted only occasionally with the nerimono genre, but the results, like the Sadahiro featured here, were lavish ôban nishiki-e (full-color woodcuts). The series Shinmanouchi nerimono ranks high among these productions.
In her pantomime for the costume parade, Chô of the Kyô-Ôgiya pantomimes a young woman returning from her daily bath. Having dressed hurriedly in beautiful blue-and-white robes, her under-robe is a deep red, a suggestive color in this context, as she strikes a coquettish pose.
The printing of this impression is very fine and the preservation of colors exquisite. Undoubtedly, this is one of the best examples that we have seen.
References: Philadelphia Museum of Art ( 1969-208-324; TWOP cat. no. 337 (no photo); SDK, #202; MFA Boston (06.824.18, 11.26587, 11.38823, 17.3214.14)
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