print
- Museum number
- 2014,3039.3
- Description
-
Colour woodblock print. The Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō II (Rikan) as Torii Matasuke, in the play 'Kagamiyama kuruwa no kikigaki' performed at the Naka theatre in the first month, 1818.
- Production date
- 1818
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39.10 centimetres
-
Width: 25.30 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This print represents the epitome of the strong hero as depicted by Rikan: sword at the ready, he poses on a rock amid torrential rain and racing floodwaters. It is the right sheet of a diptych, the other half of which shows Ichikawa Ebijuro I as Mochizuki Chogen. A Hokushu painting shows Rikan in the same role. Rikan performed three heroic roles in this production opposite Ebijuro's villains; the latter had stayed in Osaka when Shikan went off again to Edo for another tour late in 1817. The play was first performed in Kyoto in the ninth month, 1780. The story follows the so-called 'Kaga Disturbance' of 1745, which occurred in the large Kaga fief ruled by the Maeda clan. The sudden death of the lord resulted in an internal struggle for succession and a period of murder and chaos. Due to censorship, kabuki and joruri puppet plays could not portray the story directly, so it was set back in time to the sixteenth century. Here Rikan, as Matasuke, is tricked into drowning his own lord. He later realizes what he has done and sacrifices himself to thwart the enemy. In the final scene his spirit returns to overthrow the villains (Gerstle 2005, cat. 129).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2005, BM, Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage, 1780-1830.
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Kagamiyama kuruwa no kikigaki 加々見山廓写本
- Acquisition date
- 2014
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2014,3039.3
