Arashi Rikan II as Miyagi Asojirō in the play <i>Keisei Tsukushi no Tsumagoto</i> [傾城筑紫爪琴(?)]

Shunbaisai Hokuei (春梅斎北英) (artist )

Arashi Rikan II as Miyagi Asojirō in the play Keisei Tsukushi no Tsumagoto [傾城筑紫爪琴(?)]

Print


03/1832
9.875 in x 15.25 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print with metallic pigment and embossing on paper
Signed: Shunkōsai Hokuei ga
春江斎北英画
Publishers: Honya Seishichi (Marks 123)
and Kawaji
(Marks U127 - seal 25-104)
Block cutter: Kasuke
Lyon Collection - another example of this print
Chazen Museum of Art
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes - posted at commons.wikimedia
National Gallery of Victoria
Hankyu Culture Foundation - printed without the poem Color woodcut with silver pigment and embossing on paper; ōban.

Osakaprints.com wrote:

"The original dramatization of the tale of Asaojirô and Miyuki, based on a kôdan (storytelling lecture or oral narrative: 講談), was an unproduced script called Asagao ("Morning glory": 朝顔) written circa 1804-06 by Chikamatsu Tokusô (1751-1810). Later illustrated books and plays followed, including the kabuki play Shôutsushi asagao nikki (Recreating the true diary of morning glory: 生写朝顔日記) by Dekishima Sensuke in 1812, although that production was a failure. In 1832 Shô utsushi Asagao nikki was revised and turned into a puppet play, credited to Chikamatsu Tokusô under his posthumous name, Yamada no Kakashi, from which kabuki then adapted its version around 1850, first titled Eiri shôsetsu Asagao monogatari, and later again using the title Shô utsushi Asagao nikki.

The present design by Hokuei, also a recounting of the tale of Asojirô and Miyuki, was published for a play titled Keisei tsukushi no tsumagoto (A courtesan playing the Tsukushi koto), first produced in 1814 as an eight-act adaptation of Tokusô's Asagao drama by Nagawa Harusuke at the Kado no Shibai, Osaka. The "Tsukushi" of the title refers to the former province now called Kyûshû, and it also puns on tsukushi or monozukushi, a literary technique used in Edo-period drama to weave a catalog of related things into the dialog.

In the play Shôutsushi asagao nikki features the love between Miyagi Asojirô and Akizuki Miyuki, daughter of a wealthy samurai, who first meet while enjoying an outing in pleasure boats on the Uji River, a popular location for hunting fireflies. They are immediately smitten with one another and exchange vows, but afterwards a misunderstanding leads Miyuki to believe that her father will force her to marry someone else. Unknown to her, the suitor is actually Asojirô using an alternate name. To keep her pledge to Asojirô, she runs away and assumes the name Asagao ("Morning Glory," a reminder of a poem Asojirô had written for her). After months pass, Miyuki loses her sight from endless grieving, barely supporting herself by playing the koto (a horizontal harp). Coincidentally, Asojirô then discovers her at an inn, but he cannot remain, as he must quickly depart on urgent business for his lord. He leaves medicine to treat her blindness, but it is only after her near suicide over separating once again from Asojirô that Miyuki takes the palliative and restores her sight.

Design

Asojirô stands before a bridge spanning the Uji river as fireflies flit about him under a crepuscular sky. He holds a paper lantern (andon) inscribed with characters reading Tsûen, probably that of a local teahouse. The landscape is inspired by Maruyama-Shijô painting styles....

A hand-stamped seal of the celebrated block-cutter Kasuke at the lower left reads, in part, surimono hangishi ("surimono woodblock master"). This is an early deluxe edition (sometimes called "surimono-style' [sic]) with the poem and block cutter seal. Variants exist with a more darkly printed landscape. A later commercial edition was issued by the publishers Honsei/Kawaji in a joint production; these have the publishers' seal, omit the poem, and display a few color block differences from the earlier editions."

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This is an opening scene of firefly-viewing from the kabuki drama Keisei tsukushi no tsumagoto (The Devastating Courtesan Playing the Tsukushi Koto), performed at the Chikugo Theatre in Osaka in the third month of 1832. Chasing fireflies was a common pastime on pleasant summer evenings and is a natural setting for flirtations and romance. The hero of this play, here the actor Arashi Rikan II (1788-1837) shown holding a lantern with the name of the Tsūen (通圓) teahouse along with his short and long swords indicating samurai status, meets his true love among the glittering firefly lights and the drama unfolds as a love story with complications of mistaken identity. Eventual recognition of a poem first written on a round-fan in the opening scene is crucial to the lovers reuniting. However, the poem printed in silver in the night sky in this print design is composed by the actor Rikan II himself, displaying humility in comparing his own skills compared with beauties of nature:
FirefliesFutsutsu kana
I am ashamed ware hazukashiki
Like an ignorant rustic hotaru kana

About forty percent of Hokuei’s known oeuvre depicts Rikan II who was a celebrity known for his versatility as well as his large, expressive eyes. He acceded to the famed Rikan kabuki family name in1828. This short-statured actor with the nick-name “Metoku” (i.e., eye virtue) may have had no dance skills but excelled at both romantic male leads and the onnagata, or women’s roles.

Trans. John Fiorillo, “Surimono-Style Prints by Hokuei,” Impressions. v.20 (1998): 64.

There is a fascinating and telling comment about a less elaborate version of this print illustrated in Osaka Prints by Dean Schwaab - page 155. "This print illustrates the play that Rikan II performed immediately following the long run of Katakiuchi Nito Eiyuki and is, in fact, a companion piece to [#587 in the Lyon Collection, an Ashiyuki print - both published by Iden].... No role, actor's name, or poem is inscribed, and it is doubtful that a version will be found bearing such." [The bold type is ours.] Of course, one of the great things about the print in the Lyon Collection is that it does have a poem written in metallic inks and is a truly deluxe edition.

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On the lower part of Asojirō's outfit is a stylized row, in light blue, of tachibana or mandarin oranges, the personal crest of Arashi Rikan II.

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There is another copy of this print in the collection of Cabinet d'arts graphiques des Musées d'art et d'histoire de Genève.

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Illustrated in color in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shūsei (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints), vol. 2, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka, 1998, page 92, no. 285. This example has no poem in the background.


Arashi Rikan II (二代目嵐璃寛: 9/1828 - 6/1837) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kawaji (河治) (publisher)
Honya Seishichi (本屋清七) (publisher)
Miyagi Asojirō (宮木阿曽次郎) (role)