大阪版画 · 上方绘 · 歌舞伎 · 芳泷 · 《今样源氏》系列 · 初代市川右团次 · 三升 - 日本 - Edo Period (1600-1868)

** Actors Ichikawa Udanji I as Shinano no suke (right) and Mimasu Gennosuke as Otsuma (left), from the series Fifty-four Chapters of a Modern Genji. **

Artist: Ichiyōtei Yoshitaki (1841–1899)
Series: Fifty-four Chapters of a Modern Genji (Imayō Genji gojūyojō no uchi, 今様源氏五十四帖の内)
Chapters: Yūgao (夕顔, right sheet) and Hana no en (花宴, left sheet)
Signature: Yoshitaki hitsu (芳瀧筆), right sheet; Yoshitaki ga (芳瀧画), left sheet
Publisher: Ishikawaya Wasuke (Ishiwa), seal “Ishiwa azusa” (石和梓) on each sheet
Date: c. 1868–1869 (early Meiji)
Technique: Original Japanese woodblock print (nishiki-e), Osaka (Kamigata-e)
Format: Chūban diptych, 18 × 24 cm each sheet
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Condition

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

This diptych comes from Yoshitaki’s series Fifty-four Chapters of a Modern Genji, published in Osaka by Ishikawaya Wasuke around 1868–1869. Each sheet carries the title of one chapter of The Tale of Genji, here Yūgao (“Evening Faces”, chapter 4) and Hana no en (“Under the Cherry Blossoms”, chapter 8). Each title is paired with a current Osaka actor in a kabuki role. The idea of the series is the same as Edo “modern Genji” sets: the classical chapter is only a starting point, and the fun lay in linking an old court romance to the stage favourites of the day. The poems written on the sheets appear to be the waka from the two chapters.

The cartouches name the actors as Ichikawa Udanji and Mimasu Gennosuke, in the roles of Shinano no suke and Otsuma. Ichikawa Udanji I held his name from 1862 to 1908 and was one of the most popular actors of the Osaka stage in the early Meiji years. Mimasu Gennosuke was a leading name in the Osaka theatre over several generations. 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.