Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni III (歌川豊国, 1786–1864), formerly Kunisada I Title: 鼠小紋東君新形 — Nezumi Komon Haru no Shingata (“The Mouse-Pattern Kimono: New Designs for Spring”) Subject: Left and centre sheets of a kabuki triptych: Left sheet: Ukiyodoko Inosuke (浮世床伊之助) Centre sheet: Takagi Shirodayū (高木四郎太夫) Format: Ōban, two sheets of a triptych, each ca. [24 × 36 cm] Technique: Nishiki-e (full-colour woodblock print) Date: Ansei 4 (1857), 1st month Publisher: Kagaya Kichiemon (加賀屋吉右衛門) Signature / seals: Signed Toyokuni ga on each sheet. Aratame (改) censor seal and Snake-year 1st-month date seal (巳正), plus publisher's seal, on each sheet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition: Good impression with good colour throughout. The paper is firm and subtle. Minor loss and minor soiling to each sheet. Please refer to the images for full detail! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the print Nezumi Komon Haru no Shingata was written by Kawatake Mokuami (then Kawatake Shinshichi II) for the Ichimura-za production that opened in the first month of Ansei 4 (1857). The play is built around the real thief Nezumi Kozō Jirokichi, who was executed in 1832 and later became a popular folk hero. It became one of the best-known thief plays of Mokuami’s partnership with the actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston holds the complete triptych from the Bigelow Collection. Its record dates the design to the first month of 1857 and names the cast: Bandō Hikosaburō V as Ukiyodoko no Inosuke on the left sheet, Bandō Kamezō I as Takagi Shirodayū in the centre, and Onoe Kikugorō IV as Miura’s mistress Wakakusa on the missing right sheet. In the play, Inosuke is a hairdresser; the MFA also holds a related diptych from the following month that names the same role as Kamiyui (hairdresser) Inosuke.