The seventh month: Suketakaya Takasuke IV from the series Famous Views for the Twelve Months

Japanese Color Woodblock Print

The Seventh Month: Suketakaya Takasuke IV

in the role of Hotoke Gozen

from the series Famous Views for the Twelve Months

by Toyohara Kunichika and Kawanabe Kyosai, 1882

Beauty drinking tea from the series Newly Woven Brocades: Beauties of Musashi

IHL Cat. #688

About This Print

Source: Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 1999, p. 46.
One of twelve prints in a collaborative series by Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900) and Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889).  Kunichika depicts the actor Suketakaya Takasuke IV (Sawamura Tossho II) in the role of Hotoke Gozen.  Kyōsai depicts two nuns retiring at a solitary mountain cottage, a reference to Hotoke Gozen, whose name means ‘nun’.

For a profile of the kabuki actor Suketakaya Takasuke IV (Sawamura Tossho II) see the article The Kabuki Actor.

The Series Famous Views of the Twelve Months

Source: Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 1999, p. 42, 45, 46.
The second of two collaborative series on the twelve months done by Kunichika and Kyōsai in the 1880s, the other being The Twelve Months Parodied, released c. 1880.  As in the The Twelve Months Parodied, the roles of the actors in the foreground are associated with Kyōsai’s background scenes, contained within an insert.  These two series "best represent the collaborative efforts between Kunichka and Kyōsai."


Print Details

 IHL Catalog #688
 Title (Description) The seventh month 七月: Suketaya Takasuke IV 助高屋 高助 in the role of Hotoke Gozen 仏御前
 Series Famous Views for the Twelve Months 地名十二ヶ月之内 Chimei junikagetsu
 Artists Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900) and Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889)
 Signatures Toyohara Kunichika hitsu and Kyōsai in inset
 Seals
Toyohara Kunichika hitsu 豊原国周筆




and Kyōsai 暁斎 in inset
 Publication Date
 1882 (Meiji 15) 御届明治十五年 月 日
 Publisher
Left cartouche: Shuppanjin 出版 人 Takegawa Seikichi (武川清吉) located at  本銀丁二丁目十二バンチ
[Marks: publisher ref. 459 - Sawamuraya Seikichi  family name Takegawa Seikichi (sealed as Takegawa Seikichi from 1876)]

Right cartouche: 荒川八十八 gakou (painter) Arakawa Yasohachi (Kunichika's mother's surname, Arakawa, and the artist's given name, Yasohachi, followed by the artist's address)

 Carver
 Hori Gin 彫 銀
 Impression excellent
 Colors excellent
 Condition fair- full margins; unbacked; soiling; extensive wrinkling
 Genre ukiyo-e; yakusha-e
 Miscellaneous
 Format vertical oban
 H x W Paper
 14 3/4 x 9 7/8 in. (37.5 x 25.1 cm)
 H x W Image
 13 3/4 x 9 (34.9 x 22.9 cm)
 Literature
 Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), by Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 1999, fig. 31 p. 48.
 Collections This Print
 The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University 201-4560; Tokyo Metropolitan Library 5714-C069
last revision:
7/28/2021