84
Ichikawa Ebizō IV again as Abe no Sadatō, the villain of the piece, but in a different disguise from that in which we saw him in the preceding print, for here he is shown disguised as Ryōzan, supposedly a peaceful pilgrim. On the portable shrine at his back is written “Nippon Kaikoku Shugyō Rokuji-roku…” indicating a country-wide pilgrimage in which the principal temple in each of the 66 provinces is visited. He is grasping a shaku-jō or mercy-staff with rings that jingle so that insects will get out of his path and not be trodden on. It is against the law of Buddha to take the life of even the least of sentient beings, but in this case the mercy-staff, like the pilgrim who holds it, is a sham for it contains a sword.
The shrine is in black and greenish yellow. The actor wears a gray outer kimono, an under kimono of greenish yellow, and a rose-colored girdle. His collar is in rose and black.
This print may have been designed as the right-hand sheet of a triptych, the other two sheets of which have been lost.
The subject has been reproduced from a badly trimmed impression in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 321, from which it was rephotographed by Noguchi as well as for Rumpf number 84. There are three impressions in America.
The seal of Tsutaya, the publisher, is in the smaller and less usual form which appears also in numbers 88 and 89. Probably this form of the seal indicates the work of some special block-cutter.
Hosoye. Untinted ground. Signed: Sharaku.
Museum of Fine Arts (Bigelow Collection).
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