• Performers who hit the bull's eye: Bandō Shūka I on the left as Miuraya Agemaki or <i>Agemaki of the Three Shores House</i> (三浦屋揚巻) and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the right as Agemaki no Sukeroku (揚巻の助六) from the play <i>Sukeroku kuruwa no hanami doki</i> [助六廓の花見時]
Performers who hit the bull's eye: Bandō Shūka I on the left as Miuraya Agemaki or <i>Agemaki of the Three Shores House</i> (三浦屋揚巻) and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the right as Agemaki no Sukeroku (揚巻の助六) from the play <i>Sukeroku kuruwa no hanami doki</i> [助六廓の花見時]
Performers who hit the bull's eye: Bandō Shūka I on the left as Miuraya Agemaki or <i>Agemaki of the Three Shores House</i> (三浦屋揚巻) and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the right as Agemaki no Sukeroku (揚巻の助六) from the play <i>Sukeroku kuruwa no hanami doki</i> [助六廓の花見時]
Performers who hit the bull's eye: Bandō Shūka I on the left as Miuraya Agemaki or <i>Agemaki of the Three Shores House</i> (三浦屋揚巻) and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the right as Agemaki no Sukeroku (揚巻の助六) from the play <i>Sukeroku kuruwa no hanami doki</i> [助六廓の花見時]

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

Performers who hit the bull's eye: Bandō Shūka I on the left as Miuraya Agemaki or Agemaki of the Three Shores House (三浦屋揚巻) and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII on the right as Agemaki no Sukeroku (揚巻の助六) from the play Sukeroku kuruwa no hanami doki [助六廓の花見時]

Print


03/1850
10 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Ōtaya Takichi
(Marks 423 - seal on right panel 19-046; on left 01-119)
Censor seals: Mera and Murata
Special seal: shita-uri or 'discreet sale' (シタ売)
National Museums Scotland - left panel only
Lyon Collection - an 1857 Kuniyoshi print of this couple
Lyon Collection - Kuniyoshi print of an actor as a priest posed before a target Ex collection B. W. Robinson

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The National Theater of Japan gives this summary regarding Agemaki: "Play character is from “Sukeroku Yukari no Edozakura” (Sukeroku, the Hero of Edo) Common name: Sukeroku

Even in Yoshiwara, a famous red-light district, Agemaki is a top-class courtesan known as an oiran or a keisei. She wears nearly 20 hair ornaments, including kanzashi hairpins and combs, and a gorgeous uchikake formal kimono. Agemaki is a proud woman, and she boldly insults Ikyu, even though he is a regular at her establishment, as he has disrespected her lover Sukeroku; she tells him, “I would not mistake Ikyu for Sukeroku even in the dark.” "

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Some basic information about Agemaki -

The information given below is taken directly from Kabuki21: "The scene is the center of Edo's licensed red light district. Cherry trees are in full bloom against a hazy spring evening. In front of Miuraya Teahouse are several courtesans who are awaiting their celebrated colleague, Agemaki. They accused Agemaki of being drunk. She protests, but stumbles, and her attendants make her drink some sobering medicine and lead her to a bench to rest.

A letter has been delivered to Agemaki. It is from Sukeroku's mother, who tells Agemaki to cast off her son, because he is supposed to be avenging his father's murder, and that it is no time for him to come constantly to the licensed quarters and waste his time in unseemly brawls. But Agemaki loves Sukeroku so deeply that she cannot bear to pass a night without seeing him.

In the meantime, one of Agemaki's attendants comes, announcing that the elderly samurai, Ikyû, is on his way to visit her. He has been a slave to her love. Shiratama and other ladies in the district enter and Ikyû, followed by his retainers, comes. He is a vicious old man famous in the quarter for his huge white beard, but he has money and is one of Agemaki's best clients. Ikyû at once begins to abuse Sukeroku, calling him a thief. Agemaki admits that she is perhaps foolish to be in love with Sukeroku, but calling him a thief is too much. Although Shiratama tries to calm her down, Agemaki declared that she will never have anything to do with Ikyû again and withdraws, followed by Shiratama and her attendants."

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These two prints and one other from the Lyon Collection show prominent actors posed before an archery target. They are said to represent figures from the play Sukeroku kuruwa no hanamidoki.

There is a similar print by Toyokuni III in the collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Library - but with some difference. In this case, there are two actors represented together before an archery target with the arrow feather facing the other direction. Also, there is no identifying script above the target. However, the similarities with the three prints in the Lyon Collection are too great to ignore. Even the publisher is the same.

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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."

A subtle note is that Sukeroku is holding a janome (蛇の目) or bull's-eye umbrella. He opens it in one of the more dramatic moments in the play.

The name Agemaki no Sukeroku means 'Agemaki's Sukeroku'. This figure is often known by the name Hanakawado no Sukeroku (花川戸の助六).

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The name of the onnagata as the courtesan Agemaki may have its origins in the title of the fourty-seventh chapter of The Tale of Genji. Agemaki in that case means the 'trefoil knot' and appears in a poem by Kaoru. 'Trefoil knots' were used to wrap gifts. The poem reads:

In these trefoil knots may you
secure forever our eternal bond,
that our threads may always merge
in that one place where they met."


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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 Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎: 3/1832 - 6/8/1854) (actor)
Bandō Shūka I (初代坂東しうか: from 11/1839 to 11/1854) (actor)