KUNISADA • Ρόλοι πωλητών-χορού Kabuki • Δίπτυχο • Ιαπωνικό ξυλογραφικό τύπωμα • Ουκίγιο-ε - Ιαπωνία - Edo Period (1600-1868)

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada / Toyokuni III (歌川国貞・三代豊国, 1786–1865)

Title: Actors Sawamura Tanosuke III as the Dance Teacher (Odori no Shishō) Okino, and Nakamura Shikan IV — signing this year under his prior name Fukusuke I — as the Mask Seller (Men-uri) Fukukichi

Subject: A pair of hengemono ("transformation dance") vendor roles from a kaomise-season shosagoto. Right sheet: Sawamura Tanosuke III, seated, as the itinerant dance teacher Okino, with a Tokiwazu/Kiyomoto ensemble (the "連中" cartouche marks the musicians) playing behind her, one shamisen player and a chanter visible at the dais. Left sheet: Nakamura Shikan IV, mid-gesture in a striped kimono, as the mask seller Fukukichi, a comic hawker of Noh and festival masks — the strings of small painted faces hanging from his pack are the character's stock attribute. A "此世一代" (kono yo ichidai, "once in this life") cartouche on the right sheet flags the performance as a formal farewell appearance by one of the musicians.

Format: Ōban diptych — two sheets, each ca. 36 × 24 cm (overall ca. 36 × 48 cm)
Technique: Nishiki-e (full-colour woodblock print) on hōsho paper
Date: 1860 (Man'en 1)
Publisher: Kiya Sōjirō (Kōbokudō), Bakurochō 4-chōme — cartouche reads 馬喰四 木屋板, lower left
Carver: Horikane (Koizumi Kanegorō) — signed 彫兼, lower left
Signature: 豊国画 Toyokuni ga, in the red toshidama cartouche, both sheets
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Condition: Very good impression with very good, fresh colour throughout. The paper is firm with a subtle texture. Minor scuff on the right margin of each sheet otherwise clean and presentable. Please refer to the images for full detail!
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About the print

1860 found Kunisada, now in his mid-seventies and signing as the third Toyokuni, still the go-to designer for Edo's kaomise dance programmes — the season-opening shows built around a run of quick-change vendor and street-character roles performed to live Tokiwazu or Kiyomoto accompaniment. This sheet catches two of those characters back to back: Sawamura Tanosuke III, already established as one of the era's leading onnagata, as a wandering dance teacher, and Nakamura Shikan IV — who had only just taken that stage name in 1860 after a decade performing as Fukusuke I — as the mask seller, one of the stock comic hawkers who populate this kind of revue, his pack strung with the small painted faces that give the role its name.

The musicians are not tucked away: Kunisada puts the ensemble on its own raised platform across the top of the right sheet, in keeping with how these dance interludes were actually staged and watched. A "once in this life" cartouche marking a chanter's farewell performance dates the sheet to a specific, if unidentified, benefit programme. The publisher and carver seals — Kiya Sōjirō of Bakurochō, cut by Horikane — are both well-documented Kunisada collaborators of exactly this period. A left-sheet impression of this design is catalogued individually by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the right-hand companion sheet is far less often seen, and a complete, matching diptych is correspondingly scarce on the market.