Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864) Love Suicides and a Double Maternal-Sash: The Wife Ochiyo, 1849. Deluxe Chuban.
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A very rare and completely perfect Hirosada. Simply one of the best deluxe prints I have held. Outstanding preservation, perfect colour, impression and condition, rich in metallics and double printing. There is no record of this print… despite a great deal of research. Given the quality of the print I suspect therefore that this was a very short print run.
Shinjū yoi Gōshin was written by Chikamatsu in 1722 for the puppet theatre and had its premier at the Takemoto-za in Osaka that same year. It was the 24th and last play based on a real event, a double suicide. This was a genre created by Chikamatsu himself. The actual double suicide took place about two weeks before Chikamatsu wrote this play. Hanbei, a green grocer, and his wife Ochiyo, committed suicide near the sanctuary of Ikutama in Osaka.
Hanbei had been born into a samurai family, but had been adopted by a merchant. After visiting the home of his birth father he returned to find out that his wife Ochiyo had refused to submit to the will of her evil mother-in-law and had moved to the house of his brother. Hanbei repudiated her actions, but secretly plotted their double suicide. He was torn between his honour as the son of a samurai and his love of his wife. This for him/them seemed the only way out. Two different graves have been found with information on the incident, one in Kyoto Prefecture and one in Osaka. Although in both plays Ochiyo (the wife) is presented as pregnant, both gravestones include a reference to a baby boy, probably because prayers were offered separately for each of the three to enable their souls to achieve salvation.
Here then is the tragic wife, Ochiyo and her young son, presumably going to their deaths. This is a great Osaka print… superb in every way.
25 x 17.5 cm.
RESERVED
