print
- Museum number
- 2014,3039.8
- Description
-
Colour woodblock print. The Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō II (Rikan) as Akizuki Daizen, in the play 'Sono no yuki koi no kumidai' performed at the Naka theatre in the second month, 1816.
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39.20 centimetres
-
Width: 24.60 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Two frontal portraits of Kichisaburo were issued for this performance: this print and another by Hokushu. Both artists may have been responding to a portrait of Ichikawa Ebijuro I issued late the previous year (see 2014,3039.7), the idea being to present Rikan as a superstar rival to Ebijuro in the 'rough stuff' (aragoto) style, which Ebijuro had learned during his years training under Ichikawa Danjuro VII in Edo. Daizen is the grand villain of this play, plotting to overthrow the government. Here he is dressed as a Noh actor performing a lion dance, with the customary large pine tree of a Noh stage painted on the wall behind him. Scowling grimly, he half kneels with most of the upper robes turned under around his waist. Holding the blade of a sword with a cloth and reaching to open his robe, he appears ready to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) but in the play does not do so. The plot does, however, involve a famous treasured sword that is defaced. An anonymous stencil print from 1816 shows Rikan and Nakamura Utaemon III in a tug-of-war competition, both dressed as lion dancers (Gerstle 2005, cat. 176).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2005, BM, Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage, 1780-1830.
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Sono no yuki koi no kumidai 園雪恋組題
- Acquisition date
- 2014
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2014,3039.8
