Yoshitaki, Arashi Kichisaburo III as Akabori Mizuemon and Onoe Tamizo II as Naka no Tobei

Utagawa Yoshitaki (1841 - 1899) Arashi Kichisaburo III as Akabori Mizuemon and Onoe Tamizo II as Naka no Tobei in Katakiuchi ukiki no kameyama, 1861. Chuban diptych.

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The play Katakiuchi ukiki no Kameyama ("Grief for a Gentle Flower and Revenge at Kameyama") is one of the very many popular revenge plays of the nineteenth century. These dramas were very often based on stories or hints employed in the great sagas written at the time of the warring states in the preceding centuries.

The play is based on an actual event involving the Ishii brothers in the Date clan's castle at Kameyama in 1701. The story recounts Ishikawa Hyosuke's vendetta against Akabori Mizuemon, a villain who tricked Hyosuke’s father into believing that his wife had been unfaithful, which ends in his murdering her. Hyosuke, his brother-in-law Genzo, and Genzo’s wife plot revenge against Mizuemon at Kameyama Castle.

The character was confusingly re-used in other plays with subtle name changes; Akabori Mizuemon became Fujikawa Mizuemon for example when Hitori Tabi Gojûsan Tsugi was premiered in  1827 at the Kawarasakiza theatre. When audiences went to see the play by the famous playwright Tsuruya Nanboku IV, they expected a kabuki version of the bestselling comic novel about the adventures of Yaji and Kita on the road. What they got instead was a spectacular series of frightening scenes and a sexy and comic reworking of all Nanboku's favorite themes, including a monstrous cat, and transforming one of the most famous mother and son couples in kabuki into a pair of adult lovers. The play was a long-running hit and inspired many plays with spectacular scenic effects.

The diptych is a bold composition and typical of Yoshitaki’s best mature work. The two sheets are separate and unbacked. Colour, impression and condition are all fine.

37 x 25 cm.

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