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Ichikawa Komazō II as Shiga Daishichi, who is known to have been disguised as the palanquin bearer Hototogisu no Gorōhachi in some part of the play, and to have appeared there as a companion to Uguisu no Jirōsaku, who is portrayed in number 28. Obviously Daishichi is not so disguised in this print. In fact the illustrated play-bill shows him dressed as he is here attacking Mikinojō whose portrait we have seen in the preceding number; and those who have been observing attentively the arrangement of prints in the exhibition or their juxtaposition in the catalogue reproductions, will notice once more how characters brought together in the action of the plays have been drawn by Sharaku so that they would continue to face one another.
The actor is robed in black with touches of color in his under kimono and sword-hilt.
The print chosen from six in America for this exhibition was last reproduced in the catalogue of the Jacquin Collection (“Distinguished French Connoisseur”). Other impressions which have the signature placed at a lower level than that of the tip of the actor’s nose have been illustrated in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 274, Rumpf number 4, Ukiyo-ye Taika Shūsei, Vol. 14, color plate 6, and the large Moslé Catalogue plate 182. An impression with the signature placed considerably higher is reproduced by Kurth and again in the Straus-Negbaur Sale Catalogue, number 271. As is frequently the case in prints of this series a touch of red around the eyes appears in some impressions, as it does here, and is omitted in others. As the signature was the last thing printed and comes on top of the mica its position could easily be varied slightly when the design permitted, but such a marked variation as this may indicate a second edition.
The print shown by us bears one of those hand-written inscriptions discussed in our preface and in connection with number 2, which gives the name of the actor and the date of the ninth month of 1794.
Ōban. Dark mica ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Mansfield Collection).
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