Five original woodblock prints depicting popular actors. - Utagawa school - Japan - Late Edo period

Five prints from a book depicting bust portraits of popular actors in favorite roles. The accompanying poems, written especially for this publication by the actors portrayed, are signed with their pen names (haigo). The five are from a book attributed to a pupil of Utagawa Kunisada, with a preface by Umebori Kokuga II (1826-1886), and are related to prints from Kunisada’s oban series ‘The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido’.
The portraits of Iwai Kumesaburo III as Kojoro, Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Ishikawa Tomoichi, Mimasu Daigoro IV as Yamamoto Kansuke, Bando Takesaburo I as Narihira, and Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Akogi Heiji, are related to stations Arai, Futagawa, Goyu, Chiryu, and Tsuchiyama respectively.
Date: mid 1850s
Format: c. 17,5 x 11,5 cm each.

Condition: Good. Good impression and very good colours.