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Ichikawa Ebizō IV as Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa. He is here appearing in one of the shibaraku or “wait-a-moment!” interludes which were traditionally associated with the Ichikawa actors.
Ebizō also appeared in the main play as Abe no Sadatō (numbers 83 and 84) and then, when he was disguised as an envoy, he bore a somewhat similar name, Kamakura Gondayū Kagenari, which should not be confused with the name of the shibaraku rôle. In the present print the warrior represented was on the side of Yoshiiye and famous because of a story that when an arrow had pierced his eye during one of the fights against the Abe clan he merely broke off the shaft and leaving the barb where it was, drew his own bow and killed his man. This shibaraku was especially popular because it had been the first of them all—an unrehearsed interpolation by Danjūrō II in the year 1714.
Here Ebizō is depicted with the make-up of the Ichikawa actors and dressed in the voluminous over-mantle of brownish-red with white mon which was traditional for shibaraku parts. Under this his costume is patterned in white on green with a red scarf. His fan is white. The scabbard of his sword is in black and faded red.
One of the two impressions of the print now in American collections was reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 306, as Rumpf number 85 and by Noguchi. The other we reproduce here.
Hosoye. Untinted ground. Signed: Sharaku.
Fogg Art Museum (Duel Collection).
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