Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900)
Actors Onoe Kikugoro V as Okiku and Ichikawa Danjuro IX as Aoyama Tessan in The Mansion of Plates and the Cursed Makeup Mirror (Sarayashiki kesho no sugatami), 1892
Woodblock print, vertical triptych
Signed: 'Toyohara Kunichika hitsu'
Publisher: Fukuda Kumajiro
Block cutter's mark: 'Umezawa to'
Dated: October 1892 (Meiji 25, 10th month)
Signed: 'Toyohara Kunichika hitsu'
Publisher: Fukuda Kumajiro
Block cutter's mark: 'Umezawa to'
Dated: October 1892 (Meiji 25, 10th month)
Vertical oban triptych:
37.2 x 25.7 cm. (14 ⅝ x 10 ⅛ in.)
37.2 x 25.7 cm. (14 ⅝ x 10 ⅛ in.)
£ 6,500.00
Further images
In this dramatic vertical triptych, the actor Onoe Kikugoro V performs the role of Okiku no rei (Okiku's ghost), Ichikawa Danjuro IX is Aoyama Tessan, and Onoe Kikushiro III and...
In this dramatic vertical triptych, the actor Onoe Kikugoro V performs the role of Okiku no rei (Okiku's ghost), Ichikawa Danjuro IX is Aoyama Tessan, and Onoe Kikushiro III and Onoe Matsusuke IV are Tessan's retainers in the play Sarayashiki kesho no sugatami, performed at the Kabuki-za Theatre in October 1892.
There are various versions of this story. In one, Okiku was a maid in the house of a samurai, Aoyama Tessan. Aoyama wants Okiku to become his mistress and so in order to get his way, he puts her in charge of ten valuable blue and white Dutch plates, and then hides one. When he asks her to produce them she can only find nine. He proposes that if she becomes his mistress he would overlook her carelessness, but she refuses and he kills her, throwing her body into an old well. From the well she haunts Aoyama, in one version driving him mad.
Other impressions of the same print in museum collections:
The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, accession no. S2003.8.2750, go to:
https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_S2003.8.2750/
The Rhode Island School of Design, object no. 2003.39.5, go to:
https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/actors-onoe-kikugoro-v-okiku-and-ichikawa-danjuro-ix-asayama-tessan-mansion
There are various versions of this story. In one, Okiku was a maid in the house of a samurai, Aoyama Tessan. Aoyama wants Okiku to become his mistress and so in order to get his way, he puts her in charge of ten valuable blue and white Dutch plates, and then hides one. When he asks her to produce them she can only find nine. He proposes that if she becomes his mistress he would overlook her carelessness, but she refuses and he kills her, throwing her body into an old well. From the well she haunts Aoyama, in one version driving him mad.
Other impressions of the same print in museum collections:
The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, accession no. S2003.8.2750, go to:
https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_S2003.8.2750/
The Rhode Island School of Design, object no. 2003.39.5, go to:
https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/actors-onoe-kikugoro-v-okiku-and-ichikawa-danjuro-ix-asayama-tessan-mansion