About This Print
At the top of this "news nishiki-e" print, in the banner held aloft by two cherubs, is the name of the sponsoring newspaper, the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shinbun 東京日々新聞. This print depicts the marriage in the after-world, after death by double suicide, of lovers whose families rejected them.1
For a summary of the brief life of nishiki-e shinbun (newspaper color woodblock prints) see the article Nishiki-e shinbun and Newspapers in Meiji Japan.
1 website of William Wetherall www.nishikie.com
Story Translation (partial) by William Wetherall
Source: Nishiki-e Shinbun website of William Wetherall http://www.nishikie.com/stories/TNS-0862_married_in_next_world.html"A man and woman in the village of Komoro in the province of Musashi -- where colors remain unchanged for a thousand, even eight thousand eras, and there is no white hair and one day counts as two or three generations -- lamenting the thinness of their kharma in the present world, and hopeless -- died for love at an incense and flower temple."
Japanese Transcription of Text
Source: University of Tokyo website http://t4.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/archives/digital_archives/ono_collection/contents/item.6.N046.html [note: website no longer active]
千代八千代かはらぬ色のもろ
白髪それにハあらで一日を二世と
三世にこめたるハ武蔵（むさし）の国小諸（もろ）
村の男女（ふたり）になん現（この）世の縁（えん）のうすき
をうらみ覚束（おぼつか）なくも未来（さきのよ）を香花（たのみの）
院（てら）にて情死（しようし）せしに余時（そのとき）住僧（じうじ）の嚇死（かくし）
せし迄ハ既に前号に詳（つまびらか）なり両親（りようしん）これ
を悲（かな）しミ黄泉（よミぢ）のさわりと白雪（ゆき）の帽子（ぼうし）
姿（すがた）に女を粧（よそ）ほひ男もシヤンと麻（あさ）上下どこ
やらそぐはぬ三々九度色直しの床入り
まで宛然（さながら）生（いけ）る人の如く親類（しんるい）もお目出
度のおひらきと合（しう） （げん）の礼全く畢（おは）り再
同穴（けつ）の葬儀（そうぎ）を遂（と）げたり高砂（たかさご）の諷（うた）ひ終ハざるに
念佛（ねんぶつ）の声つぐ若しこの媒酌（なかうど）を件（くだん）の僧（そう）に
托（たく）せハ三人揃（そろ）ひし夜台（やたい）の奇縁（きえん）ああ
恋路（こひぢ）の闇（やミ）子ゆゑの闇いとも
黒白（あや）なき事になん
山人誌
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #421 |
| Title or Description | Married in Next World (八百六十二号 No. 862) |
| Newspaper | Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shinbun 東京日々新聞 |
| Artist | Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | 芳幾 Yoshiiku (see above) |
| Writer of Text | Sanjin 山人 |
| Publication Date | November 26, 1874 |
| Publisher |  seal reading: top: 人形町 Ningyōchō bottom: 具足屋 Gusokuya |
| Carver |  |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | fair- large brown stain in upper right corner, part of left edge and a number of worm holes have been repaired from back, wrinkling, some water staining |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; nishiki-e shinbun |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | vertical oban |
| H x W Paper | 14 1/8 x 9 5/8 in. (35.9 x 24.4 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | The University of Tokyo Digital Archives Ono Hideo Collection N046 |
4/8/2020
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