painting;
board
- Museum number
- OA+,0.480
- Description
-
Painting, theatre signboard (e-kanban). Scenes from play 'Hana fubuki uta no nadokoro': Omitsu brandishing axe in top left corner and threatening Usuyuki-hime dressed red kimono with long, hanging sleeves and silver hair ornaments; male servant with white body makeup standing in centre with his ankles together, fighting off ruffians; man in green kimono standing in top right corner and looking at woman seated on futon. Ink and colour on paper.
- Production date
- 1868-1890
- Dimensions
-
Height: 142 centimetres
-
Width: 197 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
Matsudaira Susumu has kindly identified the scenes on this signboard as coming from the play 'Hana fubuki uta no nadokoro', a version of the ever-popular drama 'Shin usuyuki monogatari' concerning the love of Princess Usuyuki for the young samurai Sonobe Saemon. The tragic plot culminates in the enforced suicide of both lovers' fathers, the Governor of Iga and Sonobe Hyoe, to clear the young couple from implication in a plot to kill the Shogun.
This is the only one of the four signboards in the British Museum collection which actually includes the crests of the actors on some of the costumes, and all are minor Osaka players. Professor Matsudaira suggests that the young woman brandishing the axe in the top left corner is Omitsu (played by an actor of the Kataoka family), who threatens Usuyuki-hime (played by an actor of the Arashi family, possibly Arashi Riko), dressed in the standard princess's costume of red kimono with long, hanging sleeves and silver hair ornaments. The male servant with the-white body makeup standing in the centre with his ankles together, fighting off the ruffians, may be Tsumahei (?Asao Sekijuro), and the only other actor identifiable is the man in the green kimono standing in the top right corner, who, from his crest, may be Asao Daikichi. It has not been possible to link the depiction to any particular performance described in Kabuki records.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: Hana fubuki uta no nadokoro (kabuki)
-
Associated Title: Shin usuyuki monogatari (original drama)
- Acquisition date
- 1990
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- OA+,0.480
