About This Print
For more information on this short-lived magazine whose purpose was to advertise the Kabuki theater and renew interest in actor prints, see the article Shin Nigao Magazine.
The Actor in the Print - Soganoya Gorō (1877-1948)
Sources:website of Sakai City, Japan http://www.city.sakai.lg.jp/english/visitors/whats/notable/other.html and the Historical Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto, Ian Martin Röpke, Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1999, p. 88.
Born in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, with the birth name of Wada Kyuichi, Soganoya Gorō is considered the father of modern Japanese comedy. He wrote over 1,000 short comedies under the pen name Ikkai Gyojin and developed a new style of comedy, Gorogeki. Before developing Gorogeki, he was an unsuccessful itinerant kabuki actor, but he went on to a successful acting career on the Tokyo and Osaka stage.
Other than a brief reference to a later performance of this play in 1928 at the Kabuki-za which Soganoya acted in, I can find no reference to, or synopsis of, Go taiten no oyado.
Natori Shunsen Catalogue Raisonné Entry
Kushigata, Japan; 1991, p.96, pl. 190.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #857 | ||
| Title (Description) | [Soganoya] Gorō in the role of Kyūzaemon [in the play Go taiten no oyado] 五郎の久左衛門 Gorō no Kyūzaemon | ||
| Series | Magazine: Shin Nigao (New Portraits) volume five 新似顔 第一年五編 | ||
| Artist | Natori Shunsen (1886-1960) | ||
| Signature | Not signed on print. 名取春仙 畫 Natori Shunsen ga printed on bottom of magazine page print was originally tipped to. | ||
| Seal | not sealed | ||
| Date | November 1915 | ||
| Edition | First and only edition printed in magazine Shin Nigao | ||
| Publisher | Nigaodō 似顔洞 | ||
| Carver and Printer | Igami Bonkotsu (1875-1933) | ||
| Impression | excellent | ||
| Colors | excellent | ||
| Condition | excellent | ||
| Miscellaneous | entry in table of contents for Issue #5 of Shin Nigao
| ||
| Genre | shin hanga (new prints); nigao-e | ||
| Format | koban | ||
| H x W Paper | 7 3/8 x 4 5/8 in. (18.7 x 11.4 cm) | ||
| Collections This Print | The British Museum 1991,1112,0.193.5 (entire magazine, only front cover shown); Art Research Center Ritsumeikan University BM-SJ193-05 (British Museum's copy of entire magazine with all pages shown) | ||
| Reference Literature | Catalogue Raisonné – Ukiyoe Kabuki Gi Han Ga: Shunsen Natori (TheSkill of Natori Shunsen in Kabuki Prints), Kushigata Municipal ShunsenMuseum, Kushigata, Japan, 1991, p.96, number 190. |
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