4 a b c d - Japanse kunst, Japanse prent, Japanse prenten

4 a b c d

Subject: (from a. to d.) Nakamura Matsue III as Tsukiyuki-hime, Arashi Rikan II as Seki no Shōshi, Iwai Shijaku I as Tamuramaru, and Nakamura Utaemon III as Ida-ten Osakabe.

Date: 1/1832, a mitate.

Signed: Utagawa Sadamasu ga (b. and c.), Shunkōsai Hokuei ga (a. and d.)

Publisher: Wataya Kihei (seal: Wataki) (a., b. and c.)

Block carver: Kasuke (seal: saiku Kasuke) (c.) (handstamped)

Format: ōban tetraptych

Private collection.

Here the artist Hokuei collaborated with Sadamasu.

This beautiful tetraptych is not related to an actual performance, but depicts four popular actors in a mitate. One of them is Iwai Shijaku I, who had travelled to Osaka in the winter of 1831. He started acting there in the first month of 1832 and stayed in Osaka until 3/1835.