Detail View: The AMICA Library: The actors Nakamura Utaemon I as the old hag Karashi Baba, wife of Sanshodayu, and Yoshizawa Sakinosuke III as Shirotae, wife of Sano Genzaemon, in a scene from part two of the play Kawaranu Hanasakae Hachi no Ki (The Ever-Blooming Potted Tree)

AIC_.1925.2413

1998

Prints

Katsukawa, Shunsho

Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese

Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia, East Asia, Japan

Katsukawa Shunsho

The actors Nakamura Utaemon I as the old hag Karashi Baba, wife of Sanshodayu, and Yoshizawa Sakinosuke III as Shirotae, wife of Sano Genzaemon, in a scene from part two of the play Kawaranu Hanasakae Hachi no Ki (The Ever-Blooming Potted Tree)

preferred

Full view

Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1769

1769

1769

Woodblock print.

Woodblock

Asia,East Asia,Japan

Hosoban; 30.6 x 14.6 cm

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, USA

1925.2413

The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection

SIGNATURE: Shunsho gaARTIST'S SEAL: Hayashi in jar-shaped outline

http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html

Kabuki Nempyo describes how Shirotae, attempting to flee with Prince Tsunehito, is intercepted and murdered by the old hag Karashi Baba. Shunsho's print shows Karashi Baba about to plunge a large cleaver into Shirotae, who is kneeling at her feet with one hand raised in futile supplication. In her awful eagerness to strike, the old hag has shrugged off the sleeves of her over-kimono (uchikake) and is almost toppling forward over the defenseless Shirotae. Cold white snow swirling against a pitch black sky intensifies the ineluctable menace of the scene.Because of the shogunal government's ban on treating contemporary political events in Kabuki plays, playwrights frequently set current or recent events in the distant Kamakura period (1185-1333). Some of the most popular of these 'Kamakura-period' plays purported to be versions of the medieval No play Hachi no Ki. In the No text the powerful regent Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263) has taken holy orders and embarked on an ostensible pilgrimage, which is in fact a reconnaissance of his vassals' military forces. At Sano in Kozuke Province he is overtaken by a fierce snowstorm and seeks shelter in a humble cottage. His samurai host, Sano Genzaemon, has been impoverished through the machinations of enemies; having no other fuel, he chops up his three cherished potted trees for a fire to warm his noble guest. Later, a call to arms in the nation's defense brings Genzaemon to Tokiyori's headquarters, where the regent recognizes him and rewards his loyalty and generosity with three estates - one for each potted tree. In the Kabuki play Shirotae is the wife of this Sano Genzaemon.Hachi no Ki's winter setting made it a common choice for the 'snow scene' that formed an obligatory part of the opening-of-the-season (kaomise) productions, which began in the eleventh month of each year. The plot of the version performed at the Nakamura Theater in 1769 was complicated by the interpolation of elements from a quite different story, that of Sanshodayu?; such creative mingling of plots was a very common practice among Kabuki playwrights. Many details of the performance remain obscure: it is not known, for instance, which actor played Prince Tsunehito, nor what function the prince served in the plot. In any event, the production seemsto have been a great success, as Shunsho devoted three more prints to it and scenes from it appear in at least twelve hosoban prints by Buncho (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, Plate 8, p.64).

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