The Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 299, Rumpf number 124, and Noguchi reproduce a much inscribed impression which gives the past names of the actor and includes one that he did not take until 1801, seven years after the print was issued. Kurth and Nakata rephotograph one from the Barboutau Catalogue. There are two impressions in America.
Hosoye. Ground filled with design. Signed: Sharaku.
Portland Art Museum (Mary Andrews Ladd Collection).
75
Iwai Hanshirō IV as Sakurai, the sister of Masashige, disguised as the country girl O-Toma.
In describing the scene represented in this set the Yakusha Ninsō Kagami refers to Hanshirō’s fine affectation of embarrassment at the appearance of two bridegrooms. One of these is shown in the preceding print and one in the print that follows.
In print number 70 we saw Hanshirō as Chihaya disguised as a woman gardener, and in numbers 78 and 79 we shall see him again in the rôle of Sakurai.
Here his kimono is of an intense black, shading to thin black in the lower part of the skirt and sleeves, with a pattern of yellow fans and peonies in rose and green, and touches of faded blue at the hem. The under kimono is rose and the obi and head-cloth are violet.
The impression we reproduce is the only one that has been recorded and it bears an inscription giving the name of the actor.
The print is the central sheet of a pentaptych.
It has been reproduced previously in the large Moslé Catalogue, plate 181, as Rumpf number 125, and by Kurth, Nakata and Noguchi. The subject was unknown to the compilers of the Vignier-Inada Catalogue.
Hosoye. Ground filled with design. Signed: Sharaku.
The Art Institute of Chicago (Buckingham Collection).
198
