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Ichikawa Yaozō III as Hachimantarō Yoshiiye. In the cartouche below his personal mon are written his house name, Tachibanaya, and his poetry name, Chūsha.
His outer kimono is patterned in light violet and white with green medallions. The under kimono is rose and the white collars show edges of faded light blue—a tone that appears again in the tonsure. The fastener of the head-dress is light violet. There are touches of rose around the eyes, in the ears and on the lips.
The actual deeds of Yoshiiye are justly famous, but his legendary exploits, like those recounted in this melodrama, give him an even more enduring fame. The mere twang of his terrible bow sent frightened demons scuttling away to safer places; and as he became one of the stock characters of the popular theatre the print-makers loved to show him in poses that would suggest his prowess.
Here he is represented in a comparatively inactive moment, garbed in the stage dress appropriate to his high social position and with the hair arrangement traditional for young men of the nobility, which we see again in the following number.
No other impression of the print is known to be in existence. This one is reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 254, and as Rumpf number 50.
Aiban. Yellow ground. Signed: Sharaku.
The Art Institute of Chicago (Buckingham Collection).
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