• Ichikawa Ebizō V as the Buddhist priest Kumagi Rensei standing before an archery bull's eye target from the play <i>Ichinotani Futaba Gunki</i>
Ichikawa Ebizō V as the Buddhist priest Kumagi Rensei standing before an archery bull's eye target from the play <i>Ichinotani Futaba Gunki</i>
Ichikawa Ebizō V as the Buddhist priest Kumagi Rensei standing before an archery bull's eye target from the play <i>Ichinotani Futaba Gunki</i>
Ichikawa Ebizō V as the Buddhist priest Kumagi Rensei standing before an archery bull's eye target from the play <i>Ichinotani Futaba Gunki</i>

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 01/01/1797 – 04/14/1861)

Ichikawa Ebizō V as the Buddhist priest Kumagi Rensei standing before an archery bull's eye target from the play Ichinotani Futaba Gunki

Print


1850
10 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Ōtaya Takichi (Marks #423)
Censors: Mera and Murata
(seals printed in reverse)
Seal: shita-uri or 'discreet sale' (シタ売)
Lyon Collection - a pair of two other actors by Kuniyoshi posed before targets
Waseda University - 1850 Kuniyoshi print of Ichikawa Ebizō V as Kumagi Rinsei The Kuniyoshi Project placed this image among its list of shini-e or memorial prints, but only as a possible example. They say that it might be an actor in the role of Nichiren. While it meets some of the requirements of a typical shini-e, such as the blue robe of the priest, in other ways it does not. Most shini-e are not signed and do not show a publisher's seal. That is why we believe that it represents a different completely different genre.

[Note: Today is June 15, 2023 and I have done a quick search at the Kuniyoshi Project to see if I could find the information I had mentioned above, but it wasn't there as best I can tell. Perhaps this is because they had figured out that this was not a shini-e or for some other reason. In any case, I felt the need to update my previous reference.]

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A curatorial note from the Freer-Sackler Galleries, now the National Museum of Asian Art, notes that "...an arrow hitting a bull's-eye, [is] a symbol that was hung in the towers of kabuki theaters to indicate a "hit" play."

There are two other prints in the Lyon Collection showing actors before a bull's-eye target. See #99.

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The term shita-uri as a special meaning according to Sarah Thompson in Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints in describing a multi-panel composition on pages 52-53: "A further concession to the reform laws, the print bears a special seal on each sheet reading shitauri, or "selling below," indicating that it could be sold only from the counter and not hung up for display at the front of the store."
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Ōtaya Takichi (太田屋多吉) (publisher)
Ichikawa Ebizō V (五代目市川海老蔵: 11/1797 to 10/1800 and 3/1832 to 3/1859) (actor)
Ichinotani Futaba Gunki (一の谷嫩軍記) (author)