88
Sakata Hangorō III as Abe no Munetō, brother of the chief villain of the piece Abe no Sadatō. As here shown he is standing in the snow and is disguised, probably as the packman (umakata) Abumizuri Iwazō.
He is dressed in red-brown with an under garment, now faded, which was once pale rose with a pale blue collar. His hat and the fringe on his apron are orange, and his body is a pale flesh color.
This print is the left-hand sheet of a triptych of which number 89 is the center. The right-hand sheet is unknown. Both prints that have survived have the small simplified form of the Tsutaya leaf-seal, also found on number 84.
The subject has not been reproduced in any Occidental books except as Rumpf number 86, where it seems to have been rephotographed from Inouye Kazuo, and does not show the snow covered ground. The impression we exhibit is the only one in America.
Hosoye. Gray ground. Signed: Sharaku.
The Art Institute of Chicago (Buckingham Collection).
89
Yamashita Kinsaku II as the okajochū (lady-in-waiting in a noble family) Tsumaki, in a snow storm.
Apparently this is one of the disguises of Abe no Sadatō’s wife Iwate, but the account in the Kabuki Nendaiki, here our main source of information, is not clear on this point. It does, however, mention the snow scene. For other portraits of Iwate see numbers 90 and 91.
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