Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳), 1797–1861 — signed Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎国芳画) on each sheet Subject: Three sheets from a multi-sheet set illustrating the Ga no iwai (賀の祝) / Sata-mura scene of Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (菅原伝授手習鑑): 　— 「梅王丸 市川海老蔵」 Ichikawa Ebizō as the palace attendant Umeōmaru 　— 「千代 尾上菊次良」 Onoe Kikujirō as Chiyo, wife of Matsuōmaru 　— 「松王丸 中村歌右衛門」 Nakamura Utaemon as the palace attendant Matsuōmaru Format: Three separate ōban tate-e sheets, each approx. 36 × 24.5 cm Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga) — nishiki-e (polychrome) on hōsho paper Date: Kōka 4 – Kaei 5 (1847–1852) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Paper & condition Excellent condition throughout, and unusually good colour for Kuniyoshi actor sheets of this date. The blue of the bamboo fence, the pale green ground and the graded red band across the sky are all fresh and even; the deep indigo of Matsuōmaru's robe and the fine blue striping over it are crisply printed, and the black of the wigs retains its depth. Each sheet is a strong, clean impression with the key block sharp. Please examine all photographs! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE PRINT Ga no iwai is the domestic hinge of the whole Sugawara cycle. The triplets' father Shiratayū is seventy, the family has gathered at his house in Sata village, and the three sons are already split across enemy camps — Umeōmaru serving the disgraced Michizane, Matsuōmaru serving the man who destroyed him. Kuniyoshi does not stage this as a group scene. He gives each character a sheet of their own and lets the garden do the joining: one bamboo fence, one graded sky, and the three trees standing where the text says they stand. Prints of this kind — one actor per ōban, sold singly but composed to sit together — were a staple of the Edo theatre trade in the late 1840s and early 1850s, and Kuniyoshi handled them better than most. The device lets a buyer collect only the actor they followed, while the design still holds as an ensemble for anyone who assembled the full run. Complete sets rarely survive intact; groups of three or four in this condition are much the more usual survival, and the three offered here happen to be the three that carry the scene's dramatic weight.