Hirosada, Ichikawa Sukejuro II as Nakamura no Yasuke and Kataoka Gado II as Mashiba Hisayoshi

Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864) Ichikawa Sukejuro II as Nakamura no Yasuke and Kataoka Gado II as Mashiba Hisayoshi, 1849. Deluxe Chuban yoko-e.

Click here for a full-size image.

This superb Hirosada is very unusual for two reasons. Firstly, it is in the horizontal chuban format that Hirosada hardly ever used (yoko-e) and secondly, it is a depiction of an actor playing one of the first African men to enter Japan. Because this is a print from a kabuki drama the artist and perhaps the producer were presumably unaware of the fact hence the character of Yasuke on the left is played by a Japanese male.

The play is now mainly lost, but here we are referencing a number of the same characters and incidents already described in this selection, because the play is concerned with the murder of  Nobunaga at the hands of Mitsuhide and his eventual assassination at the hands of Hideyoshi. The play, Ehon Taikoki, originally consisted of  thirteen acts, one act for each day that passed between Akechi Mitsuhide's murder of Oda Nobunaga and his death at the hand of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The tenth act is the only one which has survived. Mitsuhide was a sixteenth century warlord caught up in the brutal civil wars of Japan that would swiftly lead to the unification of Japan. He assassinated his overlord Nobunaga in 1582 in a bid for power but whilst he briefly attained power for himself - he was shogun for only thirteen days - Nobunaga was quickly avenged by Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the battle of Yamazaki and he died an ignominious death at the hands of a peasant.

The characters in this print are Yasuke on the left and Hideyoshi, (Hisayoshi) on the right. They confer because Yasuke was a retainer of Nobunaga and the two characters are presumably plotting the downfall of the intemperate Mitsuhide. Yasuke is important because he was a man of African origin who served as a retainer and weapon-bearer to the Japanese Nobunaga.

In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, Visitor of Missions in the Indies. Yasuke was one of several Africans to have come with the Portuguese to Japan during the Nanban trade and is thought by some to have been the first African that Nobunaga had ever seen. He is also the hero of the Netflix series, Yasuke.

This is a great and unusual deluxe chuban by the greatest of all the Osaka artists. An unusual format, important character connection and outstanding design. Colour, condition and impression are all very fine. The print shows metallics and embossing. There is one other copy of this design that I know of in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

25 x 17.5 cm.

RESERVED

Sold
£360.00