About This Print
Picturing the puppet character, the swordsman Issun Tokubei.For the stage set of this play see Bunraku Theater Stage Set for Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami.
Tokubei in Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami
image source: cropped photo from Columbia University Libraries: The Barbara Curtis Adachi Bunraku Collection
Brief Plot Summary
Source: website of Far Side Music
Danshichi is a fishmonger and otokodate (chivalrous commoner) who looks after the welfare of ordinary townspeople against the samurai. He had been imprisoned for wounding a samurai, but after receiving a pardon he is to be released. His wife, Okaji, son, Ichimatsu and Sabu, another otokodate, go to meet him. While they are praying, Danshichi is brought out and released, goes to the barber and gets a clean set of clothes. The courtesan Kotoura enters trailed by the evil samurai Sagaemon. Danshihsi gives him a beating and then gets into another fight with Tokubei who has come to get Kotoura, although the two men realizing they are both loyal to the same samurai Hyodayu, swear eternal friendship. In the final act, a festival is in progress and Danshichi catches up with Giheiji, his evil father-in-law. Giheiji says he kidnapped Kotoura in order to sell her. Danshichi offers to buy her but as he has no money. Realizing he has been tricked, the two get into a fight and Danshichi kills him.The Other Prints in the Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami Set
As further explained below, each stage set print was part of a set of five prints consisting of a black and white explanatory sheet and three portraits of puppet characters appearing in the play.
explanatory sheet
夏祭浪花鑑 Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami
Source: Waseda University Cultural Resource Database 201-1553
click on image to enlarge
The four print set for Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagamipuppets from left to right (as positioned on the stage set print's tissue overlay):Tsurifun no Sabu 釣船の三婦, Issun Tokubei 一寸徳兵衛, Danshichi Kurobei 団七九郎兵衛
About the "Illustrated Collection of Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza"
This collection of forty-eight color woodblock prints was designed by Hasegawa Sadanobu III (Konobu III) (1881-1963) and issued over the period March 1926 (Taishō 15) to August 1927 (Shōwa 2)1 by the publishing houses Bijutsusha 美術社 in Tokyo and on a subscription (members only) basis by Hangakai hanmoto 版画会板元 (板畫會板元) in Kyoto. The cost per print set was 3 yen. The editor and publisher for both the Bijutsusha and Hangakai hanmoto sets was Hayashi Eikichi 林榮吉, who was also the editor for Hasegawa's Collection of One Hundred Kumadori Makeups in Kabuki. (See Hasegawa Sadanobu III (Konobu III) (1881-1963) for prints from this collection.)
The Illustrated Collection of Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza consists of twelve sets of prints each set depicting a specific play in the bunraku repertory, as listed in the below table. Each set contains a stage set for the specific play along with three prints of puppet characters appearing in the play and an explanatory sheet, for a total of forty-eight color woodblock prints and twelve monochrome explanatory sheets. Each of the stage set prints was originally issued with a tissue overlay showing the position of the three puppet characters on the stage. All of the plays pictured were performed at the Bunraku Theater (Bunraku-za) located within the Goryō Shrine compound in Osaka. The Goryō Bunraku-za burned down in November 1926 after what has been described as "an extremely difficult managerial era" and "lost interest" by the public in the late Taishō era.2 It is unknown what role, if any, the management of the Goryō Bunraku-za may have played in the formulation and issuance of this print series in their efforts to revitalize the theater.
For more complete information on this series see the article Illustrated Collection of Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza
1 Dates are taken from the colophons on the envelopes containing the print sets in the Waseda University Archives2 National Diet Library website page http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/column/kansai/goryo_bunrakuza.html which provides a history of the Goryō Bunrakuza.
Play Name in Japanese Play Name in English 壇浦兜軍記
Dan-no-ura kabuto gunki Chronicle of the Battle of Dan-no-ura 義経千本桜
Yoshitsune senbon zakura Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees 一の谷嫩軍記
Ichi-no-tani futaba gunki Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani 仮名手本忠臣蔵、五段目
Kanadehon Chūshingura, go danme The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, Act 5 仮名手本忠臣蔵、七段目
Kanadehon Chūshingura, shichi danme The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, Act 7 伊賀越道中双六
Igagoe dōchū sugoroku The Revenge at Igagoe 心中天網嶋
Shinjū ten no amajima The Love Suicides at Amijima 新版歌祭文
Shinpan Utazaimon The New Scandalous Ballad of Osome and Hisamatsu 菅原伝授手習鑑
Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy 本朝廿四孝
Honchō nijūshikō Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety 鎌倉三代記
Kamakura sandaiki Three Generations of Kamakura Shoguns 夏祭浪花鑑
Natsumatsuri Naniwa kagami Summer festival at Naniwa (Osaka)
| Play Name in Japanese | Play Name in English |
| 壇浦兜軍記 Dan-no-ura kabuto gunki | Chronicle of the Battle of Dan-no-ura |
| 義経千本桜 Yoshitsune senbon zakura | Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees |
| 一の谷嫩軍記 Ichi-no-tani futaba gunki | Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani |
| 仮名手本忠臣蔵、五段目 Kanadehon Chūshingura, go danme | The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, Act 5 |
| 仮名手本忠臣蔵、七段目 Kanadehon Chūshingura, shichi danme | The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, Act 7 |
| 伊賀越道中双六 Igagoe dōchū sugoroku | The Revenge at Igagoe |
| 心中天網嶋 Shinjū ten no amajima | The Love Suicides at Amijima |
| 新版歌祭文 Shinpan Utazaimon | The New Scandalous Ballad of Osome and Hisamatsu |
| 菅原伝授手習鑑 Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami | Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy |
| 本朝廿四孝 Honchō nijūshikō | Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety |
| 鎌倉三代記 Kamakura sandaiki | Three Generations of Kamakura Shoguns |
| 夏祭浪花鑑 Natsumatsuri Naniwa kagami | Summer festival at Naniwa (Osaka) |
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #2482 |
| Title or Description | Issun Tokubei in Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami [The Summer Festival in Naniwa] Bunraku ningyō Issun Tokubei, Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami 文楽人形 夏祭浪花鑑 一寸徳兵衛 Note: also seen translated as The Summer Festival in Old Ōsaka; The Summer Festival in Naniwa; Naniwa's Mirror in a Summer Festival; Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka; Mirror of the Summer Festival in Osaka |
| Series | Illustrated Collection of the Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza Ōsaka Bunraku-za Ningyō Gashū: Nihon Meibutsu 日本名物大阪文楽座人形画集 |
| Artist | Hasegawa Sadanobu III (Konobu III) (1881-1963) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | 小信 Konobu (see above) |
| Publication Date | Taishō 15 or Shōwa 2 (1926 or 1927) |
| Publisher | 美術社 Bijutsusha, Tokyo and 版画会板元 Hangakai hanmoto, Kyoto |
| Carver | 佐藤重一 Satō Jūichi |
| Printer | 板垣八重松 Itagaki Yaematsu |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent |
| Genre | 文楽人形 bunraku ningyō |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 14 7/16 x 9 7/8 in. (36.7 x 25.1 cm) |
| H x W Image | 14 7/16 x 9 7/8 in. (36.7 x 25.1 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Waseda University Cultural Resource Database 201-1461; Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center AcNo. arcBK06-002_64; National Diet Library Call Number 414.38; The Met Thomas J. Watson Library 240.3081 H27 Quarto; British Library System number: 018894603 |
5/16/2021 created
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