Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864) Chuko Junishi no Uchi (Loyalty and Fidelty for the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac): Snake or Serpent - Okawa Hashizô I as Sato Yomoshichi, c.1848. Deluxe Chuban.
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This fine print by the Osaka artist, Konishi Hirosada (ca 1810 - 1864), is a mitate…
a kind of puzzle picture. The puzzle here though is more serious than
mere entertainment. In the 1840’s in Japan, but especially in Osaka, a
crumbling and centuries old government was attempting to stay afloat by
imposing strict anti-decadence laws… sometimes referred to as the Tenpo
Reforms. These prohibited the depiction of actors or theatre subjects, a
genre that had been hitherto wildly popular among kabuki fans.
Artists and publishers attempted work-arounds by producing recognisable
prints of unnamed actors, often in imaginary roles or else in roles not
taken in real life. These prints were then issued under the guise of
approved subjects… moral tales, views of famous landmarks or as in this
case, the signs of the zodiac.
Deciphering these prints at such a
distance is quite a task. Osaka prints are less well known, were
produced (albeit to extraordinary quality) in small numbers and short
print runs and the school tends to be under-represented in the
literature. The portrait in this print is that of the kabuki actor Okawa Hashizô I as Sato Yomoshichi from the play Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan. Yomoshichi is one of the principal characters from perhaps the most famous of all kabuki dramas; the tragedy of the wife, Oiwa… horribly disfigured, humiliated and killed by her husband and his cronies, who returns as a ghost to wreak mass slaughter upon all her persecutors at the close of the play. Yomoshichi is a mercurial character in all of this. In the opening act he derides the key figures in the murder, he prostitutes his own wife and pursues a personal vendetta on behalf of his late master… presumably where the subtitle of the series (Loyalty and filial piety, twelve signs of the zodiac) applies to him. Finally at the close, Yomoshichi cuts down Iemon who has so horribly abused and killed his wife.
The Zodiac sign is, ‘Snake’, seen in the calligraphy in the top right, black cartouche. The cartouche to the upper left shows a kimono drying on a stand. an allusion to the tragic Oiwa perhaps?… who appears at the close of the play in the guise of battered lanterns, drying clothes and such like. Or perhaps it alludes to the skin-shedding qualities of the snake. The final scene of course is set at the Snake Mountain Monastery which gives us the final connection to the play, the character and the role. The shape of a coil of smoke is picked out in mica behind the actor, an allusion to the magical, ghostly content of the play and the serpentine shape of the sign. The game, if you like… then as now, is to connect all the elements to form the entire, allusive picture.
All of the prints in this series were found in a very battered concertina album of the period. In order to rescue the prints, remove them from the decaying acidic backing card and repair the wormholes, the complete album has had to be disassembled. The prints have been conserved and are in outstanding condition, aside from some repaired worm damage, principally to the plain margins. The complete deluxe set in this condition even with the marginal damage is very rare. Each print is exquisitely produced with deluxe embossing, double printing, mica and metallics… it is a masterpiece of the woodblock art. Aside from the worm damage the prints are all in very fine condition. The impressions and print quality are perfect, the condition is fine with no fading and and no discolouration. Since it was necessary to separate the prints from their backing etc we feel that the set may reasonably be sold individually or as a complete series.
This print has worm damage to the upper left cartouche and right hand margin, with a minor worm hole to the bottom margin. Otherwise, condition, colour and impression are fine; with embossing, metallics and extensive mica, particularly creating the coiling smoke to the right of the print. Publisher's mark to the left margin.
An interesting feature of the set is the fact that they were published by Matsuki Heikichi, a publisher and printer of woodblock prints during the Meiji era, located in Yoshikawa-cho, a considerable distance from Osaka. He was the fourth generation in the family, known later for promoting the work of Kobayashi Kiyochika.
No copies of this particular print can be traced, making the whole set complete very rare indeed.
18 x 24.5 cm.
