Diptych from the play <i>The Seven Herbs of Iro Kurabe Aki</i> (<i>Iro Kurabe Aki no Nanakusa</i> - 色競秋七草) - Arashi Rikan IV (嵐璃寛) on the right as Shirō Yoshihisa (四郎義久) and Arashi Hinasuke VII (嵐雛助) on the left as Tatsunami Kuranoshin (達浪蔵之進)
Comments and Tags (0)
Share

Utagawa Yoshitaki (歌川芳滝) (artist 1841 – 1899)

Diptych from the play The Seven Herbs of Iro Kurabe Aki (Iro Kurabe Aki no Nanakusa - 色競秋七草) - Arashi Rikan IV (嵐璃寛) on the right as Shirō Yoshihisa (四郎義久) and Arashi Hinasuke VII (嵐雛助) on the left as Tatsunami Kuranoshin (達浪蔵之進)

Print

08/1867
13.875 in x 9.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Yoshitaki (芳瀧)
Hankyu Culture Foundation - right panel - figure identified as Amako Shirō Yoshihisa (尼子四郎義久)
Hankyu Culture Foundation - left panel
Lyon Collection - 1848-49 Kuniyoshi print of Amanaka Shikanosuke Yukimori, vassal of Yoshihisa
Japan Arts Council - right-hand panel only In the background is a lion and peony screen.

****

it is difficult to see, even with the zooming power of enlargement that this site offers, but both actors are wearing clothing covered with one of the Arashi group mon or crests: Rikan IV is displaying in an incredibly subtle way the tachibana or Mandarin orange motif, while Hinasuke VII is covered with the flowering botan or peony motif. [Elsewhere at this site we noted Hinasuke's use of a rabbit crest for a more personal touch.]

****

Illustrated in Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata Yakusha-e Shusei, (Collected Kamigata Actor Prints) volume 5, Ikeda Bunko Library, Osaka, 2005, no. 268.
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Arashi Rikan IV (四代目嵐璃寛) (actor)
Arashi Hinasuke VII (七代目嵐雛助: from February 1873 to April 1875) (actor)