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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Katsukawa, Shunsho Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese Creator Role: Artist Creator Dates/Places: Japanese; 1726-1792 Creator Active Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Name-CRT: Katsukawa Shunsho Title: The actor Matsumoto Koshiro II as Osada no Taro Kagemune disguised as the woodcutter Gankutsu no Goroz{Psi}, in act four (?) of the play Nue no Mori Ichiyo no Mato (Forest of the Nue Monster: Target of the Eleventh Month) Title Type: preferred View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1770 Creation End Date: 1770 Creation Date: Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1770 Creation Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Object Type: Prints Classification Term: Woodblock Materials and Techniques: Woodblock print. Dimensions: Chu?ban; 25.6 x 17.7 cm Inscriptions: SIGNATURE: Katsukawa Shunsho gaARTIST'S SEAL: Hayashi in jar-shaped outline AMICA Contributor: The Art Institute of Chicago Owner Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA ID Number: 1928.986 Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection Rights: http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html Context: As with most eighteenth century Kabuki plays, the libretto does not survive for Nue no Mori Ichiyo no Mato, the opening-of-the-season (kaomise) production at the Nakamura Theater in the eleventh month of 1770. Fortunately, however, the existence of a cluster of color prints and some book illustrations depicting various scenes, together with the fragmentary descriptions contained in actor critiques (yakusha Hyobanki), allows us - if we add a measure of creative imagination - to reconstruct at least the outlines of the first part.An illustration from the rare color-printed book Yakusha Kuni no Hana (Prominent Actors of Japan) shows the third (or perhaps fourth) act of the first part ('The Actor's Image', fig. 45.1, p.140). This is described in Kabuki Nendaiki as follows: 'The third act of the first part. The woodcutter Gorozo of the cave of Mt. Iwakura, real name Osada no Taro Kagemune [played by] Matsumoto Koshiro [II]. A straw head cover, wide-sleeved kimono, carrying an axe. At a place where there was alarge gingko tree with a hollow [in the trunk], [he is joined by] I no Hayata Tadazumi [played by] Danzo [III], wearing a lime green patchwork kimono and a persimmon kamishimo [surcoat and trousers], and with red sujiguma makeup. He comes up through a trapdoor, striking a mie and carrying inside his kimono a child who had fallen into the valley. The scene was gorgeous beyond words.' Though the writer fails to mention it, we see in the book illustration (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, fig. 45.1, p.140) that Tadazumi also hoists a massive rock calmly into the air - presumably to impress Gorozo with his strength.In the chu?ban color prin Koshiro as the woodcutter is shown in a pose virtually identical with that in the book: legs straight and heels close together (soku mie), a fist clenched under his chin, and the massive axe over his shoulder. He is staring down at a baby in a basket (who later turns out to be Prince Takakura). The question is, does this scene come before or after the meeting with Tadazumi? The account in Kabuki Nempyo mentions that both men made their entrance together through the trapdoor; but the unusual inclusion of the mountain landscape in the background of this print suggests that Gorozo has just come down out of the mountains and discovered the baby abandoned in the basket. Then would follow the meeting with Tadazumi (shown in fig. 45.1), when Tadazumi takes charge of the child.It is rare to find a publisher's mark on an early Shunsho print, and it is perhaps no coincidence that the mark of the long-established Edo firm of Urokogataya Magobei appears on this unusual chu?ban format. It was precisely at this time (ca. 1770) that Urokogataya was issuing the forty-eight chu?ban prints of the Ise Monogatari series designed by Shunsho, which also feature figures in landscape settings. AMICA ID: AIC_.1928.986 AMICA Library Year: 1998 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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