Surimono of Actors

I am grateful to Ward Pieters for assisting with this section.

Title: Great Wrestler-actors of the East (Adzuma no o-sekitori yakusha)

Description: Actors Ichikawa Danjûrô VII (Ichikawa Ebizô V) (right) and Nakamura Utaemon IV (left) with a sumô umpire's fan.  Kunisada designed the portrait of Ichikawa Danjûrô VII (right) and Kuniyoshi designed the portrait of Nakamura Utaemon IV

Size: Dai ôban (about 13.75 by 18.25 inches or 34.5 by 45.5 centimeters)

Date: 1850

Schaap: 1.b.1

Description: Folding album with paintings of actors Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as the king of the tengu (right) and Ichikawa Danjûrô IX as Ushiwakamaru (left).  The flowering gourd was drawn by Shibata Zeshin.

Size: 43 x 51 cm.

Date: 1849

Schaap: 1.b.2

Description: Actors Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Soga no Gorô (right), unidentified actor as Maizuru and another actor as Asahina Saburô.  Maizuru is tugging on a piece of Soga no Gorô’s armor while Asahina Saburô watches.

Size: 43.1 by 56.5 centimeters

Date: 1851-1852

Schaap: 1.b.3

Title: Praise given to Ichikawa Sansho (Ichikawa Danjûrô VII) from the Shiba Group and the Uogashi Group

Description: A scene from the Boys’ Festival with a large carp streamer partially obscured by a banner of actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII in the role of Shôki

Size: 16 x 21 inches (40 by 52.5 centimeters)

Printer: Surikô Masa

Date: 1849

Schaap: 1.b.4

 

 

No image available

 

 

Description: A large head portrait of an actor in a female role

Size:

Date:

Schaap: 1.c.1

 

Description: Actor Nakamura Shikan II (Nakamura Utaemon IV) resting on one knee and holding a mortar

Size: Shikishiban (about 7 by 8 inches or 18 by 21 centimeters)

Date: early 1830s

Schaap: 1.c.2

Description: Actors Bandô Mitsugorô IV (right) and Sawamura Tosshô (left) fighting

Size: 21.5 by 28.3 centimeters

Date: Early 1830s

Schaap: 1.c.3

 

Image courtesy of Richard Illing

 

Description: Actor in the role of a seated geisha playing the shamisen

Inset: A set of boxes upon a plaited basket on a yoke

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.1

 

 

Description: Actor as a seated beauty holding cat against her bosom

Inset: A theater program

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.2

 

 

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô V seated by a hibachi with tobacco pipe

Inset: buckets filled with fish

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.3

 

Description: Actors Iwai Hanshirô V as the courtesan Nishikido (left) and Segawa Kikunojô V (right) as a female pilgrim fighting off a ruffian.  This is a scene from the kabuki play 江戸育娘道成寺 (no translation available) performed in the Nakamura Theater in Edo in the eleventh month of 1827. 

Size: Shikishiban diptych (each sheet is about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: 1828

Schaap: 2.c.1

 

Right sided image courtesy of Richard Illing

Description: Actors Onoe Kikugorô III with a bow (right) and Iwai Hanshirô VI holding monkey mask (left) in roles suggesting Minamoto Yorimasa shooting the nue

Size: Shikishiban diptych (each sheet is about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1835

Schaap: 2.c.2

Description: Actors Ichikawa Ebizô V (Ichikawa Danjûrô VII) as a lord (left), Iwai Hanshirô VI as O-Sode, wife of Yomoshichi (center) and Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Tamiya Iemon (R) in the kabuki play ‘Tokaido yotsuya kaidan

Size: Shikishiban triptych (each sheet is about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: 1836

Schaap: 2.c.5

 

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô VI as a miko (shrine maiden) holding an open fan between her teeth (right), an actor as a geisha tuning her shamisen (center) and actor Onoe Kikugorô III standing by a palanquin and tying her obi (left).  Only the right and left panels are illustrated.

Size: Shikishiban triptych (each sheet is about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: 1836

Schaap: 2.c.7

 

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô VI as geisha squatting on a veranda

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1835

Schaap: 2.d.1.6

 

 

Description: Actor Iwai Shijaku (Iwai Hanshiro VII) in a female role holding a fan and seated on a mat under a flowering cherry tree

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1830

Schaap: 2.d.1.7

 

Image courtesy of Richard Illing

 

 

Another state of the above print in which the blue of the sky does not reach the top

 

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III reclining in a boat with a pipe in his hand

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date:

Schaap: 2.1

 

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII in the role of Arashishi Otokonosuke with a fan in his mouth in a scene from the kabuki play ‘Meiboku Sendai hagi

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Printer: Surikô Shinzô

Date: 1830

Schaap: 2.2

 

 

No image available

 

Description: Actor Nakamura Utaemon IV performing a dance on a hobbyhorse

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date:

Schaap: 2.3

   

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII kneeling in a performance of Shibaraku with his long sword upright to the left 

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.4

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as a lord holding a raised sword in his left hand and holding on to an opponents lance which he is pressing down to the ground

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date:

Schaap: 2.5

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Benkei battling actor Iwai Shiaku in the role of Yoshitsune

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: Early 1830s

Schaap: 2.6

Description: Two battledores with portraits of actors Sawamura Tosshô as Soga no Jûrô (right) and Bandô Shûka as his mistress Maizuru (left)

Size: Shikishiban (about 8 by 7 inches or 21 by 18 centimeters)

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.7

 

Description: A battledore, a shuttlecock and an envelope of cards for the game of sugoroku.  Actors as the Soga brothers are pictured on the envelope.

Size:

Date:

Schaap: Not listed

Description: Bust portraits of two actors

Size:

Date:

Schaap: Not listed

Description: Memorial portrait (shini-e) of actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII

Size: Ôban triptych (each panel is about 14 by 10 inches or 36 by 25 centimeters)

Date: 1854

Schaap: Not listed

‘Schaap’ refers to listing in ‘Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi’ by Robert Schaap (Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 1998).

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