ISHIKAWA GOEMON USING NINJUTSU (Utagawa Kunisada)

Object: original Japanese woodblock print
Genre: ukiyo-e 浮世絵 pictures of the floating world

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 (1786-1865), signed Ichiyosai Toyokuni ga 一陽斎豊国画
Print subject: actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV 四代目市川小団次 as the legendary ninja warrior and bandit Ishikawa Goemon 石川五右衛門 who has a large traveling basket on his back and who, using ninjutsu 忍術 techniques, is floating on a cloud carrying a scroll in his mouth; actors Bando Hikosaburo IV 四代目坂東彦三郎 in the role of the powerful general, enemy of Goemon, Chikuzen no kami Hisayoshi 筑前守久吉, kabuki alias for the famous daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉, and Iwai Kumesaburo III 三代目岩井粂三郎 who plays the lady of the house Ayanodai 奥方綾乃台, both depicted holding their swords (the setting of the scene is most likely the main gate “Sanmon” 三門 of the Nanzen-ji 南禅寺 Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto)

Play: A Shade of the Soga on a Glorious Sand Path 木下曽我恵砂路
Theater: Nakamura 中村

Publisher: Ebisuya Shoshichi 恵比寿屋庄七 (Kinshodo 錦昇堂)
Censors’ seals: Hama 浜, Magome 馬込

Material: washi 和紙 Japanese paper
Technique: nishiki-e 錦絵 multi-coloured woodblock printing

Year: 1851, 1st month
Condition: good, right signs of aging, some tiny holes of which the largest in the lower left corner, partial trimming of the upper margin, slight backing
Dimensions: 36 x 25 cm

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