About This Print
Theactor Nakamura Shikan 中村 芝翫 playing the role of the thief Ishikawa Goemon 石川五右衛門 from the series Twenty-Four Favorites of New Civilization. A bird delivering a message is contrasted with the telegraph wires in the inset. The same, or very similar, drawing of the Nakamura Shikan's head was used in a triptych print made in the following year by a different publisher.
Comparison of 1879 and 1880 prints
The Actor Nakamura Shikan
Source: Kabuki 21 website http://www.kabuki21.com/shikan4.phpNakamura Shikan IV 中村芝翫 (3 March 1831 ~ 16 January 1899) was a great Meiji actor, who achieved fame for himself all over Japan (he toured a lot). He was equally at home in sewamono and jidaimono dramas, able to play almost any kind of role as tachiyaku, katakiyaku or even onnagata. He created many kata and some of them are still sometimes revived, like the ones for the role of Kumagai Jirô Naozane in the "Kumagai Jin'ya" scene of the classic "Ichi-no-Tani Futaba Gunki".
His rivalry with Bandô Hikosaburô Vwas one of the hottest in Kabuki history: "So nearly matched in abilitywere Shikan and Hikosaburô, with but two years' difference in theirages, that they were pitted against each other, and their patrons oftenindulged in fights over them. During a performance, when these actorswere playing together, they came through the audience by way of the twohanamichi, the one to the right of the stage a mere footpath, that to the left a platform that was in reality a continuation of the stage proper. They quarrelled as to who should take the main hanamichi, and the dispute waxed so hot that they finally drew lots to settle the matter." (Zoë Kincaid in Kabuki, the Popular Stage of Japan)
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #394 |
| Title (Description) | The Actor Nakamura Shikan in the role of Ishikawa Goemon - the word denshin 電信 (telegraph) appears in the bottom of the cartouche bearing the series title. |
| Series | Twenty-four Favorites of Meiji Restoration (Kaika nijushi-ko 開化廿四好) (also read as Twenty-four Favorites of Enlightenment or Twenty-four Favorites of New Civilization) |
| Artist | Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900) |
| Signature | Toyohara Kunichika hitsu with toshidama seal |
| Seal | toshidama seal |
| Publication Date | 1877 |
| Publisher | Sawamuraya Seikichi - sealed as 武川清吉板 Takakawa Seikichi from 1876. Address 須田町四番地 Sudachō Yonchōme 4-banchi |
| Printer | |
| Carver | Horikō Gin 彫工銀 seal of Asai Ginjirō (1844-1894) |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | fair- full-size, partially backed, heavy wrinkling and minor soiling |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; nigao-e; yakusha-e |
| Miscellaneous | one of the cartouches in the bottom left margin indicates the print was drawn by (gakko) Arakawa Yasohachi, a combination of his mother's surname and the artist's given name. |
| Format | vertical oban |
| H x W Paper | 13 7/8 x 9 3/8 in. (35.2 x 23.8 cm) |
| H x W Image | 12 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (32.4 x 21 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University 201-3854; National Institute of Japanese Literature 37TA-0417-0000-0000_00 |
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