119
Sawamura Sōjūrō III as Soga no Jūrō Sukenari.
Again we have a triptych showing the Soga brothers and their enemy Kudō Suketsune as we had in numbers 116, 117 and 118.
The chidori in the costume of the actor traditionally indicate that he is playing Soga no Jūrō. This is the left-hand sheet of the triptych.
The kamishimo and hakama of the costume are in faded blue with stripes of faded violet and the chidori design in white. The under garment is red. The tonsure and the collar are in pale gray-blue.
The print we exhibit is the only impression in America. Another that was somewhat trimmed is reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 293, as Rumpf number 116, and by Noguchi.
Hosoye. Across the background runs a horizontal band of faded blue bearing in white the mon of the Itō family which designates the Soga. Signed: Sharaku.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Mansfield Collection).
120
Bandō Mitsugorō II as Soga no Gorō Tokimune.
The butterfly design identifies the role as it did in the Soga no Gorō sheet of the preceding triptych, which like the one now being considered showed the two brothers facing their hereditary enemy.
This is the central sheet. The coloring has not been described.
We have rephotographed as Rumpf did for his number 117, and as
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