Background
Kunisada designed four sets of half-length actor portraits in the 1810s, the last appearing in 1816. About six years later, he returned to the format in 1821-1822 when visiting Kamigata with some leading Edo actors. Around that time, Kunisada might have found some inspiration in the ôkubi-e masterpieces of Shunkôsai Hokushû, who produced twenty-one "large-head" portraits beginning in 3/1820 and ending in 7/1826. While Kunisada had criticized the style of facial likenesses (nigao) used by Osaka artists, the format and visual impact of Hokushû's works might have indeed impressed him. Soon after his return from Osaka, he produced a series of half-length portraits with poems by the actors. There was at that time a craze for composing seventeen-syllable verses (haiku) among Japanese of all classes, and so the artist was likely responding to the widespread fascination with amateur verses. Kunisada would ultimately produce twenty more sets of half-length actor portraits between 1822 and the late 1830s comprising around 125 separate designs.*
Design
Onoe Kikugorô III was born in Edo in 1784 and died in 4/1849. Considered one of the greatest "all-around" actors (kaneru yakusha) in kabuki history, he was a specialist in roles for "everyday plays" or domestic dramas (sewamono). Kikugorô performed in Osaka during four different periods: 7/1820; 11/1825-4/1826; 1/1849-9/1841; and 4/1848-1/1849.
Kikugorô's robe has a complex pattern that actually reveals a rebus for the actor's name. There are four vertical stripes and five horizontal ones, and in between the hiragana character for "ki" and the Sino-Japanese character pronounced "ro." Five is pronounced "go" in Japanese and the stripes added together make nine, pronounced "ku." Combined together this rebus reads "ki-ku-go-ro" forming the actor's name. This design, too, called "Kikugorô-kôshi," is now commonly seen in men's yukata..." and five horizontal ones.**
The poem reads: Hataori no tenugui furushi ume no hana (機織の手拭古し梅の花) and is signed with the actor's poetry name, Ôgiya Baikô 扇舎梅幸. One approximate translation might be: "The weaver's hand towel, worn with age—plum blossoms in bloom," contrasting a worn-out cloth of daily toil with the fresh beauty of blooming plum blossoms. The themes of endurance, the passage of time, and the coexistence of hardship and fleeting beauty are suggested here. In addition, the actor's name "Baikô" means "plum blossom fortune," so the poem may express the hardship of becoming a skilled actor on the kabuki stage, while recognizing that Baikô was in full bloom.
References
The British Museum has an impression of this print (2018,3021.31).
- See our Kunisada I Biography.
- Also see https://viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/ukiyoe/kunisada.html.
- * Ellis Tinios, Mirror of the Stage: The Actor Prints of Kunisada. University Gallery Leeds, 1996, pp. 36-37.
- ** Shigaki Nakamura, Pattern Sourcebook: Japanese Style 2, p. 14 (cited by Mike Lyon, https://woodblockprints.org/index.php/Detail/objects/1197).
There are many publications on the works of Kunisada. A good introduction in English is by Sebastian Izzard (with essays by J. Thomas Rimer and John Carpenter): Kunisada's World. New York: Japan Society in collaboration with Ukiyo-e Society of America, 1993.
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