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Sawamura Sōjūrō III as Satsuma no Gengobei, a rôle in which we have seen him depicted at a happier moment in number 123. Here he is drawing his sword presumably in the scene where he kills Koman.
In the cartouche below the personal mon of the actor are his house and poetry names Kinokuniya and Tosshi.
The outer kimono is in faded violet with stripes of gray and yellow, and the last mentioned color shows again in the lining of the sleeve. The under robe is in rose with the collar in black. The tonsure is in faded light blue as are the wrappings of the sword hilt with its yellow (golden) fittings.
The impression we exhibit is the only one in America. Another is reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 260, as Rumpf number 54, and by Noguchi.
Aiban. Yellow ground. Signed: Sharaku.
The Art Institute of Chicago (Buckingham Collection).
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