OSAKA – Kamigata Kabuki Diptych – Uji Jōetsu and Kanae Tanigorō – Shiraishi Banashi - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)

** Osaka Print · Kamigata-e · Kabuki · Onoe Tamizō II · Ōtani Tomoemon · Diptych. **

Actors Onoe Tamizō II as Uji Jōetsu (right) and Ōtani Tomoemon as Kanae Tanigorō (left)

Artist: Ichiyōtei Yoshitaki (1841–1899)
Signature: Yoshitaki ga, on each sheet
Date: c. 1860s–1870s
Technique: Original Japanese woodblock print (nishiki-e), Osaka (Kamigata-e)
Format: Chūban diptych, 18 x 24 each sheet
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Condition

Excellent colours and impression. The paper has minor soiling and an album backing. Very good overall!
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ABOUT THE PRINT

This diptych comes from the Kamigata tradition of Osaka, where print artists worked closely with the local kabuki theatres. Osaka prints were made for theatre fans, often in smaller editions than Edo prints, and many designs survive in only a few impressions. This design is not recorded in the museum collections we checked.

The kana title cartouche appears to read Shiraishi banashi. This refers to the “Shiraishi tale” plays based on Go-Taiheiki Shiraishi Banashi (1780). In these plays, Uji Jōetsu is the stage name for Yui Shōsetsu, the military teacher who led the failed Keian conspiracy against the shogunate in 1651. Writers changed historical names in this way because plays about recent political events were not allowed. Kanae Tanigorō is another character from the same plays, and the two roles also appear together in an Edo print by Kunisada from 1842.

Onoe Tamizō II (1800–1886) was one of the leading Osaka actors of his time and stayed on stage into the Meiji period. Yoshitaki was the most productive Osaka print artist of the 1860s and 1870s and designed a large number of actor prints for the city’s theatres.
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Why Collect Osaka Prints?

Osaka prints are one of the less explored areas of Japanese woodblock collecting. Osaka publishers produced far fewer designs than Edo publishers did, so fewer impressions survive today, and individual designs often turn up only rarely on the market. The prints were made for local theatre fans and record the Kamigata kabuki stage of the time, its actors, roles and productions, with a care for detail that sets them apart from Edo work.

Prices have not caught up with this scarcity. The Japanese print auction house Artelino notes that Osaka prints have long remained undervalued in the international market, with many fine examples still selling well below comparable Edo prints. Artelino suggests one reason is that the Osaka kabuki scene is less familiar to Western collectors, which makes it a more specialised field. It also points out that fewer high-quality prints are reaching Western markets from Japan, so scarcity may matter more in the future, since many fine prints that left Japan earlier are now held in established collections. The small chūban format has a practical side as well: it makes the prints easier to store and handle, and they are generally more affordable than Edo prints.