138 · 139
Left-hand sheet: Ichikawa Tomiyemon, Sakata Hangorō III and Sanogawa Ichimatsu III. Right-hand sheet: Ichikawa Danjūrō VI and Onoye Matsusuke I. The background in both sheets is the same, a lattice fence on either side of the uprights of a torii, the cross pieces of which are invisible.
We make no comment on this diptych except to point out that in his designs for prints Sharaku did not use decorative backgrounds before the eleventh month of 1794 but did use them at that time and for the first month productions of 1795.
These two drawings have been rephotographed here from the Barboutau Catalogue, numbers 218H and G, as Rumpf rephotographed them for his Drawings numbers II and III, and as Kurth, Nakata and others have done.
Unsigned. 8½×12 inches each.
316
