Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Sawamura Sōjūrō V as Teranishi Kanshin (寺西閑心) on the left, Ichimura Uzaemon XII as Inabanosuke (因幡之助) in the center, and Onoe Kikugorō III as Usugomo with the cat-gost Okabe on the right in The Lifetime of Onoe Kikugorō III (Onoe Kikugorō ichidai banashi - 尾上梅寿一代噺)
07/1847
29.25 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Wakau (Marks U366 - seal 25-254)
Censor seals: Hama and Kinugasa
Náprstek Museum (via the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto)
Metropolitan Museum of Art - center and right panels only
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - center panel only
Waseda University - left panel
Waseda University - center panel
Waseda University - right panel
Waseda University - center panel - a different edition
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow - right panel only
National Gallery of Victoria
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Hankyu Culture Foundation - right panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - center panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - left panel
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) - center panel only From the B. W. Robinson collection. This triptych commemorates a performance at the Ichimura Theater in the seventh month of 1847. The scene with the giant cat monster appears to take place in an dilapidated old temple.
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Another copy of this triptych was featured in the Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection at the Japan Society from March 13 to June 7, 2015.
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There is another copy of this triptych in the Worcester Art Museum.
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Illustrated in:
1) Ukiyoe Museums in Japan (Nihon no ukiyoe bijutsukan - 日本の浮世絵美術館), vol. 1, p. 36. That example is from the collection of the Sendai City Museum (仙台市博物館). This entry erroneously gives the wrong date for this triptych. They say it is 1887, which is clearly wrong.
2) 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 1, p. 88, #143.
3) black and white in Chimi moryō no sekai : Ukiyoe : Edo no gekiga--reikai, makai no shujinkō-tachi (浮世絵魑魅魍魎の世界: 江戶の劇画 : 霊界魔界の主人公たち) by 中右瑛 (Nakau Ei), Ribun Shuppan, Tokyo, 1987, p. 81. [The text is entirely in Japanese.]
4) black and white in Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Springfield Museum of Art, 1980, #149.
5) in color in Catalogue of Japanese Art in the Náprstek Museum published by The International Research Center for Japanese Studies: Nichibunken Japanese Studies Series 4, 1994, p. 171.
6) in color in Ukiyo-e from The Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, 1994, #26, pages 94-95.
7) in color in Japanese Yōkai and Other Supernatural Beings: Authentic Paintings and Prints of 100 Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Magicians by Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2023, p. 25.
Onoe Kikugorō III (三代目尾上菊五郎: 11/1815-3/1848) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Wakau (publisher)
Sawamura Sōjūrō V (五代目沢村宗十郎: from 7/1844 to 10/1848) (actor)
Ichimura Uzaemon XII (十二代目市村羽左衛門: 11/1821 to 12/1850) (actor)