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Archive: Sadaharu (貞春)

Description:
Ichikawa Morinosuke as Ono no Tôfû in Ôno no Tôfû aoyagi suzuri, Ônishi no Shibai, Osaka
Signature:
Hasegawa Sadaharu ga
Seals:
No artist seal
Publisher:
Tenki (Tenmaya Kihei: 天満屋喜兵衞)
Date:
4/1839
Format:
(H x W)
Ôban nishiki-e
37.2 x 24.8 cm
Impression:
Very good
Condition:
Excellent color, unbacked; repaired wormhole in yellow band of umbrella; one more small wormhole in tree near top edge, printer's smudge over Morinosuke's left shoulder, thin pigmentation areas in sky and in hakama
Price (USD/¥):
SOLD

Inquiry: SAH01

Comments:
Background:

Ono no Tofû aoyagi suzuri (Ono no Tofû, the inkstone, and the green willow tree: 小野道風青柳硯) offers a fanciful retelling of events involving the legendary calligrapher Ono no Tôfû [Michikaze] (894-966: 小野の道風) during the reign of the Emperor Yôzei (868-944). The historical Tôfû, grandson of a courtier-poet, Ono no Takamura, was a government official, poet, and calligrapher. In the latter capacity, he served three emperors and is considered one of the Sanseki (Three Brush Traces: 三跡), Japan's three greatest calligraphers. In Japanese legend and art, Tôfû is particularly well known as the figure who takes inspiration from a frog who attempted seven times to leap from a pond to an overhanging willow branch until finally reaching his perch on his eighth attempt. Likewise, Tôfû had tried seven times to win a higher post in the imperial court, and so he took the frog's perseverence as a sign that he, too, should try yet another time, for which he was rewarded.

The play was written by Takdea Izumo I, Chikamatsu Hanji, Miyoshi Shôraku, and three others as a ningyô jôruri (puppet theater: 人形淨瑠璃) premiering in 1754 at the Takemoto no shibai in Osaka. With a mischievious twist, the dramatization depicts Tôfû as an illiterate carpenter reared as a commoner (the result of a crime committed by his father, an exiled imperial councilor). Tôfû works at the imperial palace, where he is promoted to courtier. A enemy of the emperor, Tachibana Hayanari, plots to take over the country. One day, Tôfû observes frogs leaping among willow branches in a temple pond, which he interprets as a sign that the emperor is in danger from Hayanari. When Dotsoku no Daroku, an ally of Hayanari's, attempts to recruit Tôfû into the conspiracy, Tôfû pretends to accept after the two fight and Tôfû tosses Daroku into the pond. When Tôfû is asked to sign a written affirmation of his loyalty to the planned usurpation of the throne, the illiterate Tôfû is able to do so only through a miracle initiated by his nurse Horinni, who sacrifices herself and dips a brush in her blood. In the end, Tôfû and his allies (including Daroku, who switches sides and helps to hide the emperor) defeat Hayanari and his co-conspirators.

Design:

Morinosuke, costumed as the courtier/poet Ono no Tôfû, stands by a pond as he watches the indefatigable frog leaping up toward the hanging willow branch. Morinosuke carries a janôme-gasa (snake's-eye umbrella: (蛇の目傘).

Provenance: This impression is from the Haber Collection, illustrated in Schwaab (Osaka Prints, 1989, no. 185). Prints from this collection are admired for their fine color preservation, and often for their rarity, as with this artist and subject.

References: OSP, no. 185