Background
Tenpôôzan ("Mt. Tenpô: 天保山) was a large man-made hill, the result of a government-sponsored public works project begun in 1831-32, constructed by dredging the mouth of the Aji River at Osaka harbor and piling up the silt. The shape of the mountain was modeled after Mt. Hôrai (蓬莱, Ch. "Penglai Immortal Island" 蓬萊仙島), the mythical mountain where Taoist immortals were said to dwell. Organizers produced various entertainments to bring in crowds of onlookers who would then walk about and compress the newly sodded landscape. The park turned out to be quite an attraction, not only because of the novelty of the effort, but also for its lighthouse, stone lanterns, teahouses, freshly planted cherry trees, and picturesque views of the harbor. As a result, the "mountain" was depicted for decades in a number of ukiyo-e designs, particularly fûkeiga (landscape pictures: 風景画). Tenpôzan remains today a popular waterfront resort.
Design
A design such as this portrait of Rikan II away from the stage would have been very popular—not a surprise given the fascination among kabuki fans for glimpses into the private lives of their matinee idols. The choice of the Prussian blue (bero-ai, ベロリン藍) for the "mountain" matching the bay water is curious; perhaps the nearly monochrome background helps to empahsize Rikan. Possible, too, is Hokuei using the colorant due to its popularity in landscapes (N.B., Utagawa Hiroshige), not long after the first all-blue prints (aizuri-e 藍摺絵) were published around 1829 (the first appearance of the pigment in ukiyo-e prints and paintings seems to have occurred around 1822-23 in very limited areas of the designs).
Note: This mitate-e is the only known non-folding fan (uchiwa) design by Hokuei. The date suggested here is based on Matsudaira, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei, vol. 3, no. 567, but a date sometime in 1834 is also plausible.
References: IKBYS-III, no. 567; Fiorillo, Hokuei: Master of Osaka Kabuki Prints, 2024, cat. no. 194; British Museum, ex-John Adams Collection (2024); Ikeda Bunko Library (大H279); Lûhl Collection (SDK no. 37)
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