Background
We have not located a synopsis for the play Azuma miyage Date no hinagata (A Date-pattern gift in the east: 東部産伊達雛形), but the inclusion of the role of Nikki Danjo points obviously to at least one sub-plot featuring the intrigues over the succession within the Date clan of Sendai (仙台) in eastern Japan during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. (Sendai was founded in 1600 by the daimyô Date Masamune, 伊達政宗 1567-1636.) The classic play on this theme is Meiboku sendai hagi (Bush clover, the famous tree of Sendai: 伽羅先代萩). It was so popular during the Edo period that it had at least one performance nearly every year after its premiere in 1777. It also spawned a number of adaptations, such as Hagi wa Sendai Na wa Matsumoto (Matsumoto and the famous autumn flowers of Sendai: 秋花先代名松本), as well as the present example, Azuma miyage Date no hinagata. In the play, Nikki Danjo conspires to overthrow Ashikaga (a theatrical substitute for the Date clan name) Yorikane, but he is foiled in the end and slain.
Design
A dramatic scene with a temple(?) silhouetted in the distant mist. The boatman Kikubei (holding an oar behind his back) watches Tobei subdue an adversary.
最上の摺り（金摺りデラックス版）最上級の色彩、保存状態良好（薄紙裏打ち、右図と中図は一枚の裏打ちでつながっている）わずかなシミ、トリミング少々）
References: IKBYS-IV, no. 112
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