Isshusai Kunikazu (active 1849 - 1867) Five Virtues: Benevolence - Arashi Rikaku II as the Rokubu Pilgrim Kaishi, 1859. Deluxe Chuban.
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Isshusai Kunikazu, (Utagawa Kunikazu) is one of the great Osaka artists that appeared towards the end of the high period of Osaka print production. His works are nowhere as numerous as that of Hirosada say, or Yoshitaki. But at their best, they tend to be of a tremendously high quality. The two prints in this selection are no exception. They are as fresh, as bright and and as breathtaking as when they were first issued, over one hundred and fifty years ago. On this print from a short series on Confucian virtues, the background and some of the detailing has been picked out with delicate bronze powder like a shimmering jewel. Oxidised metals appear in the cartouche and other parts are burnished and double printed to add to the exotic, otherworldly feeling of the print. A short print run ensures fanatical attention has been paid to the expensive production… thick, hosho paper which has not discoloured, and superfine block carving that is uncorrupted by over-use. Really a tremendous and oddly powerful thing to hold.
This print and its fellow on the page here, are examples of the disingenuous layering of virtuous messages upon the representation of decadence in the kabuki theatre. The five prints in the series commemorate a performance of the play Keisei kuruwa no kadomatsu, ("New Year Pine in the Pleasure Quarter") performed at the Kado Theatre in Osaka in 1859. The plot is lost, though remnants of the play linger on in dance pieces; the pine of the title perhaps relating to the pine decorations posted at New Year at the entrance to the pleasure quarter, the Yoshiwara. The play may have therefore involved the love and rescue of a prostitute and hence the adoption by Kunikazu of the various Confucian virtues.
After the moralising reforms of the 1840’s which more or less closed the theatres in Osaka and ended widespread artistic production, the tendency to play safe and mask the identity of roles and performers behind virtuous, loftier stand-ins lingered into the 1850’s. This is a good example. The print is a straight actor/role bust portrait… however to be on the safe side, it purports to show one of the Confucian virtues; in this case, Jin… benevolence. The remainder are; loyalty, justice, wisdom and propriety.
Although the plot is lost to us, we can see quite a lot going on in this print which gives us a clue to the identity or at least the character of the role. Two clues in this spectacular, strikingly modern design tell us that the character is a Rokubu Pilgrim. The box on his back which fills the background space, is a container for a statue of the Buddha. During the Edo period, the pilgrim could carry the Buddha statue whilst walking to 66 temples, simultaneously hitting a prayer bell and asking for offerings. Pilgrimages were quite popular during this time as a means to get out of Edo and get a permission to travel freely around the country. The pilgrims wore white pilgrim's robes and tekko gloves covering the backs of their hands and wrists, as in the print by Kunikazu. A print of a similar character - and the same actor - in the MFA Boston, shows the identical stage gear and a hand held bell, which pilgrims struck on their route. This presumably is the meaning of the stick held by Rikaku in this print.
The design is richly decorated with brass dust and the best of double printed pigments, the block cutting is superb and the short print run means that it is a very rare print, especially in this outstanding condition. Colour, condition and impression are all fine.
Publisher: Ishiwa-han.
18 x 25 cm.
