Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864) Snow, Moon and Flowers: Flowers, 1847. Chuban.
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This is an outstanding Hirosada. The colour of the background dazzles, the strength of the design and the overall balance of colour makes this humble chuban a masterpiece. As with most of Hirosada’s actor prints of the period, details of the subject remain scant. The large-head portraits of Osaka kabuki actors by the woodblock artist Konishi Hirosada are among the best prints of the nineteenth century. Two or three things jump out of these prints which immediately differentiate them from their near neighbours in Edo. Firstly, their size: nearly all Osaka prints are printed onto chuban size paper: 19 x 25 cm. Secondly, almost all of these prints are outstanding in their quality: that is, the number of colours and the the lavish use of metallic pigment and the often superior paper. But what about the look of these mainly portrait prints?
Like the Renaissance artist, Giotto or the Spaniard, el Greco, there is a physiognomy to these intimate and careful portraits that is immediately distinguishable - a roundness of features, a narrowness to the eyes and enigmatically, a longing in the expression which seems to add an extraordinary and touching intimacy to what are in the main actor portraits. Osaka was particularly devastated by government prohibitions on the portrayal of kabuki actors, leading to an almost complete collapse of production during the 1840’s. Artists resorted, slowly, to testing the boundaries of the law by producing untitled actor portraits, frequently unsigned, in limited editions for consumption by cognoscenti. These prints, as in this case, went under bland titles suggesting worthy moral subjects such as Tales of Filial Piety or as in this case, Snow, Moon and Flowers.
A jewel of a print, the role and play unknown. The spray of flowers to the left gives a clue to the nominal title. The background is a deep, almost hand-applied orange… highly unusual as a pigment in this period. Colour, impression and condition are all fine. This is a very rare print even for Hirosada and I can only find one other example in the museum of the National Gallery, Prague.
18 x 25 cm.
