UTAGAWA KUNISADA / TOYOKUNI III (1786–1865) Hagoita with Kijin no Omatsu — “Omatsu the Demon-God” on a New Year’s Battledore Published by Hiranoya Shinzō, Edo, Bunkyū 2 (1862) · Signed nanajū-hassai Toyokuni hitsu — “Drawn by Toyokuni at age 78” ---------------------------------------------------- A Late Masterpiece — Kabuki Portraiture Disguised as a New Year’s Toy In the final years of his career, when he signed his prints with the proud disclaimer of his age — nanajū-hassai Toyokuni hitsu, “drawn by Toyokuni at seventy-eight” — Kunisada produced a small group of designs of exceptional inventiveness for the publisher Hiranoya Shinzō. Chief among them is the short series of 1862 actor-portraits set against the most unexpected of supports: the back of a hagoita, the wooden paddle used to play hanetsuki, the Japanese girls’ game traditionally played at New Year. This is one of those prints, and one of the strongest. What Kunisada attempts here is a remarkable optical conceit. The print pretends to depict not a kabuki scene, but the painted decoration on a New Year’s gift — a battledore prepared for the Hagoita-ichi, the December market at Sensō-ji in Asakusa, where painted paddles bearing portraits of star kabuki actors were sold as auspicious New Year gifts to keep away misfortune (and, in popular belief, to “bat away” the mosquitoes of the coming summer). The shuttlecocks and small balls in the foreground complete the conceit. --------------------------------------------------------- The Story — Kijin no Omatsu, Omatsu the Demon-God The portrait painted on the back of the hagoita shows one of the great roles of late-Edo kabuki: Kijin no Omatsu, the female bandit known as “Omatsu the Demon-God,” from the play Shinpan Koshi no Shiranami (新板越白浪 — “New Edition of the Thieves Crossing Over”). The play, which premiered at the Ichimura-za in the 9th month of 1851, was loosely based on a popular street-ballad of the early nineteenth century — a tale of a wandering samurai who falls in with a beautiful female bandit at Kasamatsu Pass in Echigo province, becomes her travelling companion, and is stabbed to death by her while crossing the Tani River. Omatsu is one of the great akuba — the “evil-woman” characters that became hugely popular on the kabuki stage of the 1840s and 1850s, alongside female poisoners, ghosts, and outlaws. She disguises herself as a man, leads a gang of highwaymen, and possesses the prized sword Kishinmaru. In the most famous version of the story, she becomes a courtesan, seduces and murders the blind samurai Shirosaburō, and ends as the leader of a bandit gang. The role was created in 1851 by the great onnagata Bandō Shuka I (1813–1855), and was so closely identified with him that even after his death the role remained inseparable from his interpretation. The composition in this hagoita-print is taken directly from the iconic stage image Shuka established: Omatsu cradling a tiny infant to her chest, gazing upward at the round celestial spheres hovering above her head — an omen, perhaps, of the violent fate to come, or the stars under which she was born. Kunisada had depicted Shuka in this role many times during the actor’s lifetime; here, seven years after Shuka’s death, he returns to the role itself. -------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: The female bandit Kijin no Omatsu (鬼神お松) from Shinpan Koshi no Shiranami, the role created by Bandō Shuka I at the Ichimura-za, 1851/9 Format: Ōban tate-e (vertical large-format), single sheet Date: Bunkyū 2 (1862) Publisher: Hiranoya Shinzō (平野屋新蔵), Yorozu-chō, Edo Signature: nanajū-hassai Toyokuni hitsu 七十八歳豊国筆 (“Drawn by Toyokuni at age 78”), with red seal Dimensions: Approx. 36 × 24 cm (ōban) --------------------------------------------------------------- Condition Excellent. Strong, fresh impression with the full effect of the woodgrain printing on the paddle back clearly visible — a quality that diminishes rapidly in later impressions, where the grain becomes less defined. Colours are rich and well-preserved throughout, including the brilliant bokashi background and the figured kimono pattern. Fine detail in the hair, facial features, and shuttlecock embossing is crisp. Some minor trimming on the margins, which is typical of hagoita-format prints (which were often trimmed to display in albums or to fit framing). Light, even age-toning of the paper consistent with the print’s 160-plus years. An attractive impression in well-above-average condition for the design.