Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)

SAWAMURA TOSSHŌ I (澤村訥升) as Torii Matasuke [鳥井又助] with the severed head of a woman between his teeth - trimmed print - left panel of a diptych

Print

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Date:03/1838
Dimensions:7 in x 11.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Links Kuniyoshi Project - this site identifies the figure with the head in its teeth as Lord Taga Tairyo (多賀大炊) played by Ichimura Uzaemon XII in Yanagi Sakura Iroe no Kagabone (柳桜彩絵加賀骨) Description:As fascinating as this print is, it is most certainly cut down from a standard oban size of approximately 14" x 10". It lacks a signature, publisher's seal and all or any censor's seals. If you look closely you will see the right-hand edge of the title cartouche in the upper left corner. We are confident that in time we will find an image of the full print and will be able to fill in the blanks.

In June, 2023 we did find the full image and the right-hand panel at the Kuniyoshi Project. They gave us the title of the play, the date of the performance, the theater and the publisher. They are a great resource and should be used by any and all scholars, researchers and collectors to help fill in their own personal knowledge gaps.

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Like so many other characters found in kabuki plays, Torii Matasuke has a tenuous connection to an historical event. Sarah E. Thompson wrote in Utagawa Kuniyoshi: the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō on page 64: "First produced in Kyoto in 1780, the kabuki play Stories Heard in the Pleasure Quarter at Mirror Mountain (Kagamiyama sato no kikigaki) was loosely based on a power struggle that had taken place some thirty years earlier in the Kaga domain, the hereditary fief of the Maeda family, when an ambitious retainer killed Lord Maeda Yoshitoku and his three sons to further his own schemes. As usual in kabuki plays, the names and settings are changed, so that the plot deals with the troubles of the "Yasuda" family of "Taga"; but the real basis of the story, the Kaga incident, is concealed int he place-name Mirror Mountain (Kagamiyama), which also features int he titles of other plays on the subject."

"In the plays, Torii Matasuke is a loyal retainer of Lord Yasuda of Taga, but he is tricked by the evil Mochizuki Genzō (based on real-life villain Otsuki Denzō). In a rainstorm, the lord is crossing the Chikuma River on horseback when Matasuke, swimming underwater, surprises him and cuts off his head. Clutching his gory trophy in his teeth,,, the lord's retainers dash about in confusion on the far shore. Only too late does he learn that he has killed the wrong person, not the villain he thought he was attacking but his own lord."

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In a later play, Kagamiyama Gonichi no Iwafuji (On Mirror Mountain: Iwafuji at a later date), a variation on Yanagi Sakura Iroe no Kagabone (柳桜彩絵加賀骨), written by Kawakami Mokuami in 1860, the Fitzwilliam Museum said: "The drama hinges on the scene shown in this print. Matasuke has been persuaded to murder Oryû, mistress of lord Taga no Tairyô. He attempts to carry out the murder while she is on a ferryboat at Hashiba Ferry, returning from an excursion to view cherry blossoms on the bank of the Sumida River. Unfortunately he kills Tairyô’s wife, Ume no Kata, by mistake, and before realising his error he makes his escape by leaping into the river and swimming for the bank."
Related entities Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Sawamura Tosshō I (初代沢村訥升 or 澤村訥升: from 11/1831 to 6/1844) (actor)

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