Kunimasu 國升 (Sadamasu 貞升) Gallery -- OsakaPrints.com -- Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock and Modern Prints and Paintings

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 key role of Nikki Danjo (仁木弾正) was also performed by Ôkawa Hashizô I in this staging (he actually took on five different roles). This role points 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

Ôkawa Hashizô I (大川橋蔵) is the later name, used from 4/1848 to 4/1849, of the actor who had been performing as Onoe Kikugorô III (尾上菊五郎 1815 to 6/1848). He was one of the greatest actors in the history of kabuki。He is perhaps best remembered for his rivalry with the superstar Ichikawa Danjûrô VII (市川團十郎 1791-1859) in Edo, and for his collaborations with the playwright Tsuruya Nanboku IV (鶴屋南北 1755-1829), who in 1825 wrote for him the role of Oiwa (お岩) in Tôkaidô [Azuma] Yotsuya Kaidan (Tôkaidô [Azuma] ghost story at Yotsuya, 東海道四谷怪談), the best known of Kabuki ghost plays.* Besides playing vengeful ghosts, Kikugorô's specialties included adolescent males (wakashugata, 若衆方) and older wise men (jitsugotoshi, 実事師), but his range also extended to villains (katakiyaku, 敵役) and female roles (onnagata, 女方 or 女形). He was acclaimed as an all-round actor, or "man of a thousand faces" (kaneru yakusha, ねる役者), and his ability for quick-change roles (hayagawari, 早替り) allowed him to play seven to nine roles in a single play.

* Playbills for the 1825 premiere of Tsuruya Nanboku's ghost story show that the first character in the title was read as "Azuma," not "Tô." [see Shimazaki ref.]

The Ikeda Bunko Library has an impression (中S109) with different colors in the background and cartouches. Our impression is exceptional, with sharp lines and fresh colors.

References:

British Museum BM1916 (Left sheet only; 1906,1220,0.1121)
Jan van Doesburg, Utagawa Sadamasu. Den Esch, Dodewaard, The Netherlands (privately published, edition of 80, 2022), p.96, no. 98
KNP-6, p. 514
MFA Boston (complete, 11.35278-81)
Shimazaki, Satoko: "The Ghost of Oiwa in Actor Prints: Confronting Disfigurement" in: Impressions 29, 2007–08, p. 95.

Kunimasu 國升 (previously Sadamasu 貞升)