** Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) — Kabuki Diptych from the Dance Finale Tsuki yuki hana don-e no kakegaku, Morita-za, 1st Month 1860 — Fine Colour and Impression. ** Artist: Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 / Toyokuni III 三代豊国 (1786–1865) Signature: Toyokuni ga 豊国画 in toshidama cartouche, on both sheets Series / play: 月雪花鈍画掛額 — Tsuki yuki hana don-e no kakegaku, "Framed Painting of Moon, Snow and Flowers," the dance finale (ōkiri shosagoto, with tokiwazu, tomimoto and nagauta) of the New Year programme Main feature on the same bill: 百鵆賑曽我 Momochidori nigiwai Soga ("The Bustling Soga of a Hundred Plovers") Scene cartouche (left sheet): 月の懸罠 — provisionally Tsuki no kakewana, the "moon" section of the dance Theatre: Morita-za, Edo Date: 1st month 1860 (Ansei 7) — aratame seal with Monkey/1st-month date seal 申正改 Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), nishiki-e Format: Ōban tate-e diptych (two sheets), approx. 36 × 49 cm overall Publisher: Eijudō -------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition Excellent colours and impression, and excellent condition for the paper. Minor scuff on the margins. Excellent overall. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE PRINT Two sheets from Kunisada's coverage of the New Year programme at the Morita-za in the first month of 1860. The bill's main feature was a Soga vendetta play, Momochidori nigiwai Soga — the "hundred plovers" of the title echoed in the flock of chidori scattered across the young figure's robe — and it closed with the dance piece Tsuki yuki hana don-e no kakegaku, a "framed picture" conceit set to three schools of music at once. The flowering plum branch above the right-hand figure and the strong first-month date place the design squarely in the New Year season, when Soga plays were an annual fixture of the Edo stage. The staging is pure late-Kunisada: a flat sky-blue ground, a bold blue-and-white checkerboard border with a gold fillet running across the top of both sheets, and the figures cut cleanly against it. The left sheet pairs a hooded standing figure in a lilac robe of butterflies with a kneeling youth in plover-patterned silks; the right shows a figure in a grey travelling cloak over a boldly patterned kimono, leaning on a staff beneath the plum. The colour here is unusually fresh — the blue ground even, the reds and yellows unfaded — and the impression is crisp, with the woodgrain texture in the grey cloak still clearly readable.