Gigadō Ashiyuki (戯画堂芦ゆき) (artist )

Bust portrait of Seki Sanjūrō II (關三十郎) as Hanaregoma Chōkichi (放駒長吉) from the play Futatsu Chōchō [双蝶々] (Two Butterflies, Chōgorō and Chōkichi)

Print

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Date:1827
Dimensions:10.25 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Gigadō Ashiyuki ga
戯画堂 芦幸画
Publisher: Wataya Kihei (Marks 579 - seal 25-056)
Links Rijksmuseum
British Museum - 1825 diptych of Chōkichi and Chōgorō Description:This is the left-hand panel of a pair of prints showing the rival sumo wrestlers Nuregami Chōgorō and Hanaregoma Chōkichi.

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Illustrated in color in Heroes of the Kabuki Stage by Arendie and Henk Herwig, Hotei Publishing, 2004, page 196, no. 17.1.

The Herwigs wrote on page 197:

"Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Nomiki Sōsuke wrote a puppet play in 1749, borrowing the theme from the murder of a samurai by a quarrelsome sumo wrestler, a shocking event at the time. First performed in 1749 at the Takemoto puppet theatre in Osaka, it was not an immediate success. The kabuki version, staged a year later in Kyoto at the Arashi Sanemon Theatre, met with greater acclaim. Though based on the same subject and using the same characters, it combined two different stories. The Japanese title of the play, Futatsu chōchō, meaning 'Two Butterflies', is a pun on the names of the two main characters, sumo wrestlers, who have chō in their names. The elder wrestler is usually played by the troupe leader as the role requires someone of stature, while the younger is played by a novice, emphasizing the difference in generation."
Related entities Seki Sanjūrō II (二代目関三十郎: 11/1807-2/1839) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Wataya Kihei (綿屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
sumō (相撲) (genre)

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