diptych print
- Museum number
- 1915,0823,0.874.1-2
- Description
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Colour woodblock print, oban diptych. The kabuki actors (from right to left) Matsumoto Kinsho I as Haradamaru Naotoshi, kneeling and grasping one end of a cloth banner, Matsumoto Koshiro V as the spirit of the great tengu Tarobo, with wings at his back, clutching a 'tokko' (vajra, a Buddhist instrument symbolising a thunderbolt) in one hand and wearing the small black cap (tokin) on his head, depicted within a painting mounted as a hanging scroll, and Iwai Kumesaburo III as Princess Shiranui (Shiranui hime), holding the other end of the banner. Possibly a mitate scene from an unperformed 'danmari'.
- Production date
- 1847-1850 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Height: 35.70 centimetres (left)
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Height: 35.70 centimetres (right)
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Width: 25.40 centimetres (left)
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Width: 25.40 centimetres (right)
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- Curator's comments
- The seals of the censors Muramatsu and Fukushima were used in combination between 1847 and 1852. During this time, there does not seem to be any record of an actual performance featuring these actors in these roles. (At any rate, Koshiro V died in the 5th month of 1838, long before these censors’ seals were in use.) Therefore, it is possible that the design shows a fictional scene (‘mitate’) of the type called ‘danmari’. Such ‘danmari’ were usually performed as part of the 11th month ‘kaomise’ productions. As Kinsho died in the 11th month of 1849, possibly the diptych was published in his memory. He and Kumesaburo had appeared together at the Nakamura-za earlier in the 4th month of that year. The picture of Koshiro V can be identified as the spirit of the tengu Tarobo because the artist reused an earlier design for this section of the diptych in which the character’s identity is inscribed on the print. For the earlier design, and more information on the character Tarobo, see print reg. no. 1906,1220,0.1062. (P. Griffith 12/2013).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2015 April-July, London, BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from Prehistory to the Present'
- Acquisition date
- 23 Aug 1915 (transfer date)
- Acquisition notes
- Transferred from Department of Oriental Manuscripts (August 1915)
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1915,0823,0.874.1-2
