Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864) Mimasu Daigoro IV as Inuta Kobungo, c.1850. Chuban.
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This print shows the actor Mimasu Daigoro IV as Inuta Kobungo from the play Hana no Ani Tsubomi no Yatsufusa. The unlikely story of the Eight Dog Heroes or the Tale of the Hakkenden will be familiar to lovers of Japanese prints or kabuki - and anime - fans. Set in the middle-ages, the story charts the miraculous birth of eight super-heroes and their subsequent adventures. Written/revived by Kyokutei Bakin from 1814 and serialised over thirty years it was wildly popular and gave rise to many plays and print series.
This print is one of a series of eight prints portraying the characters in the popular story. The complex plot tells the story of the eight offspring of a supernatural marriage between a princess - Fuse - and her father’s dog. Shamed at the birth of her children, she kills herself, and the eight beads of her rosary, each representing a Buddhist virtue, become crystal orbs and disperse, the children being reborn to normal mothers sixteen years later. They reunite as adult ‘superheroes’, their names all beginning with the syllable for ‘dog’ (inu).
The kabuki play is set sixteen years after the supernatural event. Six of the brothers reunite at an inn, and the character portrayed in this print, Inuta Kobungo stops by chance and also pledges his brotherhood. The climax of the drama is very famous and involves much stagecraft and melodrama, as described in Henry Joly’s, Legend in Japanese Art, 1908:
This fantastical episode has at its centre a vicious old cat that can transform itself into a human form. The cat slays Kakutaro's father, then assumes his likeness. Having learned that Kakutaro's attractive wife, Hinaginu, will give birth to a baby in the year of the rat, the monster is moved to murder. Having sent Kakutaro on an errand, the creature momentarily betrays its feline nature when it licks the fish oil poured into the lamp. Before Kakutaro's return, however, it murders Hinaginu. When Kakutaro discovers his wife's body - and learns the truth of the cat's identity (and his father's death) - he retaliates instantly with the assistance of Genpachi. The threesome clash in a fearsome midair fight that culminates with the appearance of a giant demonic cat on top of the devastated house, with the ferocious-looking cat/Ikkaku standing by it, glaring down at the warriors.
This is a fine Hirosada print from a very good series. Colour, condition and impression are all fine. A very good and sensitive portrait and quite uncommon in the series.
25cm x 18cm.
