Background
Kanadehon chûshingura (Copybook of the treasury of loyal retainers:假名手本忠臣蔵, often called simply "The Forty-seven Rônin"), is the most celebrated of revenge plays, and remains popular to this day. It was first written as an eleven-act bunraku (puppet play: 文楽) premiering in August 1748 at the Takemoto-za theater in the Dôtonbori entertainment district of Osaka. A nearly identical kabuki adaptation appeared later that same year. The theatrical tale was based on actual events from 1703 when former retainers of the lord of the Akô domain, Asano Naganori, exacted revenge by murdering Lord Kira Yoshinaka, who had (apparently) so enraged their lord that Asano attempted to murder him. Asano's action was a serious violation of the samurai code of behavior within a shogunal palace, whose punishment resulted in Asano's seppuku ("incision of the abdomen", ritual suicide: 切腹).
The oldest surviving Chûshingura play is Goban Taiheiki (Chronicle of great piece played on a chessboard) written in 1706 by Japan's foremost playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The plot involves the historical Kô no Moronao (高師直 died 1351), who was the first to hold the position of Shitsuji (Shogun's deputy) and became general of the Shogun's (Ashikaga) armies, which defeated the forces of the southern court in the fourteenth century. However, the genesis of Chikamatsu's story can be found in a puppet play also by him written less than a month earlier called Kenkô hôshi monomigurugusa (The sightseeing carriage of the priest Kenkô), in which the priest persuades a general named Kô no Moronao to transfer his unwanted libidinous attentions from a court lady to the wife of Enya Hangan. When she rejects Moronao, he denounces her husband and forces him to commit seppuku. Thus the catalyst for future theatrical treatments and their various expositions of the vendetta had been set by two Chikamatsu plays in 1706. Also established was the transfer to the sekai (world or sphere: 世界) of the fourteenth century. The foremost puppet and kabuki version, the 1748 Kanadehon chûshingura, presents a re-imagined vendetta by the retainers of Enya Hangan (a provincial lord or daimyô) who committed seppuku after a confrontation incited by Kô no Moronao (a chief councilor to the Shogun).
Design
Tamikuni (多美國), a pupil of Yoshikuni (芳國), was active from around 1823 to 1838. His surname was Toyokawa (豊川) and his art names (gô) Kôgadô (好画堂) and Jiryūsai (兒龍齋). In our design, the artist placed his signature on the far left of the screen (tsuitate 衝立). He produced a small body of work and woodblock prints from his oeuvre are not often encountered (see References below).
The scene for the left sheet (shown here) portrays the fateful moment when Enya Hangan, lord of Asano, can no longer restrain himself and unsheathes his sword to attack Moronao. Doing so constitutes a capital offence. Retainers struggle to subdue Enya while on the right sheet (not pictured here), Kô no Moronao (高師直), performed by Nakamura Tsurusuke (中村鶴助), who is seated on the floor, cringes in fear. The grouping of Enya and the retainers behind the floor screen is unusual, especially as the enraged Enya Hangan has kicked his leg through the painting of the red sun over cresting waves. It takes a moment to "read" the scene to realize that the purple long-legged trouser is Enya's and not some robe tossed into the air.
Our impression is early and its colors are excellent.
References:
At the moment, we know of only one other impression of this design or the complete diptych, which can be found in the Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum. Their web page with a small illustration of this work is available at 28th Special Exhibition.
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