Background
Nagahide worked in Osaka and Kyoto. His surname was Nakamura (中邑) and his given names (jinmei) were Arichika (有愼) and Aritsune (有恒). During his career, he used at least two art names (gô), Chôshûsai (長秀齋) and, as seen on our print, ûrakusai/Yûrakusai (有樂齋). He was a pupil of Ryûkôsai (琉光齋), the founder of the mature style of actor portraiture in Osaka. Of particular importance, throughout his career Nagahide was a prolific designer of stencil prints (kappazuri-e), especially those depicting women in various roles for the costume parades in Gion, Kyoto (Gion nerimono), and full-color woodblock prints (nishiki-e), including actor prints (yakusha-e) and portrayals of beautiful women (bijinga). He also provided illustrations for picture books (ehon) and worked as a block copyist.
Keisei kagamiyama, an eleven-act Bunraku play written by a physician with the pen name "Yo Yotai" and first performed in Edo in 1782, is an abbreviated title for Kaga Mountain and a Courtesan’s Soga in the Pleasure Quarters (Keisei Soga kuruwa Kagamiyama), a play about two courtesans in the Yoshiwara, Edo. "Kaga Mountain Plays" (Kagamiyama mono) dramatized eighteenth-century rivalries within the Maeda clan in Kaga; many were adaptations of a puppet play (ningyô jôruri) called Kagamiyama kokyô no nishiki-e 鏡山旧錦絵), 1782, Edo. A slightly earlier Kyoto production was A Record of the Kagamiyama Pleasure Quarter (Kagamiyama kuruwa no kikigaku 鏡山廓の聞書) premiering in 1780.
The main plot line was based on an actual incident from 1724 when the maidservant Osatsu avenged the death of her mistress, Omichi, who had been driven to suicide by a woman named Sawano. In typical fashion, theatrical adaptations changed the names of the protagonists. After the lady-in-waiting Onoe uncovers a plot to seize power from the shogun by a court woman named Iwafuji, the latter strikes Onoe with a sandal—considered a shameful insult. Onoe commits suicide, but only after revealing the conspiracy to her maid, Ohatsu. The dutiful maid foils the intrigue and kills Iwafuji with a sword, then symbolically beats the corpse with Onoe’s blood-stained sandal.
Design
The scene depicted in our print, once part of the original play, is no longer performed. It shows an armed confrontation between Torii Matasuke and a lord named Taga no Taishō (多加ノ太正). The two meet at the river’s edge, Taga riding a black steed (not shown here) in the fast-flowing current, Matasuke strikes a dramatic pose (mie) after climbing a tree. Later in the play Matasuke sacrifices himself and then, at the climax, returns as a vengeful spirit to defeat his enemies.
The composition is unusual, with one figure dominating the foreground and the other seemingly far away in the tree. The "perspective" is achieved simply by making Matasuke very small, even though in the print he is drawn close to Taga.
This is a rare design that seemingly never shows up for acquisition.
References: WAS-5, nos. 196, 197 (30-015 016; figures cut out and pasted on a painting of waves); KNP-6, p. 77
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