44
Sawamura Sōjūrō III as Nagoya Sanza, the hero of the play and a young man who was as much praised for his good looks as for his swordsmanship. For another portrait of the actor in the same rôle, but differently equipped except for his swords in their mottled scabbards, see the preceding number.
Here he is dressed in a black outer robe which is decorated in the lower part with a green and white design of bush clover (hagi). His under kimono is rose-colored and below that he wears a gray and white garment with a lozenge design.
We place the subject as the left-hand sheet of another probable triptych, and would add that we feel much more sure of the propriety of bringing together the three prints now being considered than we did in the juxtaposition of numbers 40, 41 and 42.
Sōjūrō has his back to his enemy, but is clearly on guard, and his eyes are intent on the quarter from which attack is expected. Such a posture is in the best samurai tradition for the swordsman hero of a play.
The print we exhibit has been reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 320, in the Catalogue of the Mutiaux Sale, by Noguchi and as Rumpf number 63. There are two others in America.
Hosoye. Yellow ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.
Ledoux Collection.
45
Segawa Kikunojō III as the courtezan Katsuragi who was loved by the hero of the play and who loved him in return.
Another and even less flattering portrait of the same actor in the same part but differently robed except for the repetition of the cherry blossoms, may be seen in number 43.
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