Surimono of actors,

Part I

 

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

 

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Description: Actor Iwai Hanshirô VI as a seated beauty holding a cat against her bosom, with poems by Ryuotei Gijutsu and Ryukwayen Suien

Inset: A theater program and ticket

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

Date: c. 1834

Schaap: 2.b.1.2

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a stylized snowflake (yukiwa, 雪輪)

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

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

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a full moon.

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor in the role of a seated geisha playing the shamisen

 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III 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

 

NOTE: The inset is shaped like a flower.

 

Series: A Set of Three (Sanbantsuzuki, 三番続)

Title: Snow

Description: Actor Iwai Kumesaburô II in a female role standing on a bank of the Sumida River with an umbrella in the snow, with a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

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

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.a.6.2 (listed as a bijin surimono)

 

Series: A Set of Three (Sanbantsuzuki, 三番続)

Title: Moon

Description: Actor Iwai Tojaku I in a female role seated by a shôji screen resting his hands on a long pipe, with a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

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

Date: c. 1832

Schaap: 2.a.6.1 (listed as a bijin surimono)

 

Description: A geisha squatting by the balustrade of a veranda

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

Date:

Schaap: 2.d.1.6

 

NOTE: Schaap suggests that this may be a portrait of the kabuki actor Iwai Hanshirô VI.  The figure hidden behind the shoji wearing the kiku (chrysanthemum) mon may be Onoe Kikugorô III.  I am grateful to Robert Pryor for the image. 

Series: Untitled series of snow, moon, and flowers (setsugekka)

Title: Flowers

Description: Actor Onoe Kikugorô III in a female role holding a fan and seated on a mat under a flowering cherry tree, with  a poem by Ryûôtei Hananari

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: 1825

Schaap: 2.1

 

NOTE: This surimono was issued by the Hananari-shachû (Hananari Circle).  The poem is signed Ryûkaen, and the inscription is signed Ryûôtei Gijutsu.

 

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII in the role of Arashishi Otokonosuke seated on a stool with a iron war-fan between his teeth in a scene from the kabuki play Meiboku Sendai hagi.  There is a white rat in a bat-shaped cartouche in the top right corner, and two poems are inscribed above.

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

Printer: Surikô Shinzô

Date: 1830

Schaap: 2.2

 

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

Kuniyoshi - (shikishiban) Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII kneeling in a performance of Shibaraku with his long sword upright to the left

 

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. 1837-1838

Schaap: 2.4

 

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

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

Date: Early 1830s

Schaap: 2.5

 

I am grateful to Marc DeVriese for this variant state of the above surimono

 

Yet another state of the above surimono with a different poem in the left upper corner

 

Description: Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Benkei battling actor Iwai Shijaku I (or Iwai Kumesaburô II) as the young Yoshitsune

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

Date: c. 1829-1832

Schaap: 2.6

 

I am grateful to and Lucienne Parkan for this alternate state of the above design.

 

Description: Two battledores with portraits of actors Sawamura Tosshô I 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: Popular actors in costume

Size: Aiban (about 13 by 9 inches or 34.5 by 22.5 centimeters)

Date: 1847-1850 (censors Mera and Murata)

Schaap: Not listed

Publisher: Mikawa-ya Denbei

 

 

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

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KuniyoshiProject