About This Print

Title page and index (mokuroku 目録) for the series The Kabuki Eighteen.  These eighteen plays were selected by Ichikawa Ebizō V (Ichikawa Danjūrō VII) in 1840 as the most representative aragoto (rough-stuff) plays of the Ichikawa Danjūrō line of actors.

The upper right square with the multi-colored bands contains the names of all eighteen plays, as follows (reading from right to left):

目録 (index):　不破 (Fuwa),　矢の根 (Yanone),　鳴神 (Narukami),　関羽　(Kan'u), 不動 (Fūdō),　七ツ面　(Nanatsumen), 嫐 (Uwanari),　毛抜 (Kenuki),　押戻し (Oshimodoshi),　景清 (Kagekiyo),　象引 (Zohiki),　鎌髭 (Kamahige),　助六 (Sukeroku),　解脱 (Gedatsu),　暫 (Shibaraku),　蛇柳 (Jayanagi),　外郎 (Uirō Uri),　勧進帳 (Kanjinchō)

Below the play titles is a listing of the first eight actors in the Ichikawa family lineage.  The generational number is given, followed by the Danjūrō name, followed by the particular Danjūrō's poetry name. (The poetry names usually linked to the stage name Danjūrō were Sanshō and Hakuen.)  Reading from right to left we see:

市川家系 (Ichikawa family lineage): 初代 段十郎 才牛 (founder Danjūrō - Saigyū), 二代目 団十郎 柏莚 (2nd generation Danjūrō - Hakuen), 三代目 団十郎 三升 (3rd generation Danjūrō - Sanshō), 四代目 団十郎 隨然,      　(4th generation Danjūrō - Zuinen*), 五代目団十郎 白猿　(5th generation Danjūrō - Hakuen), 六 代目 団十郎 三升 (6th generation Danjūrō - Sanshō), 七代目 団十郎 白猿 (7th generation  Danjūrō - Hakuen), 八代目 団十郎 三升 (8th generation Danjūrō - Sanshō)

To the left of the titles of the play we see the Ichikawa mon (family crest) of a mimasu (triple rice measure), followed by then (December 1895) current Danjūrō's generation 九代目 (9th generation) and name  市川 團十郎 (Ichikawa Danjūrō) followed by the characters 俳名三升號団洲 (俳名 poetry name,  三升 Sanshō followed by 號団洲 Danshū.)

*In this case Danjūrō IV's Buddhist name of Zuinen is given.