Artist: Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周)
Print: Bandō Hikosaburō V (坂東彦三郎) as Gengobei (源五兵衛) in the play
Drawing a crowd for the chorus in the two theaters
(Koe mo Sorou Ryōza no Ōyose - 音揃成両勘大寄) -
the center panel of a triptych
Signed: Kunichika hitsu (国周筆)
Artist's seal: toshidama
Publisher: Shimizuya Naojirō (Marks 468 - seal 01-081)
Related links: Waseda University ; Waseda University - right-hand panel; Waseda University - left-hand panel; National Museums of Scotland - another Kunichika print referring to this play;
While the hands of his dying victim grasp at his bloody robes, a ronin or masterless samurai raises the lantern with his gory hand. You can't see it in this print, but Gengobei's bloody right hand is holding a sword in the left-hand panel of the triptych from which this is the center panel.
This print commemorates a performance at the Nakamura Morita Theater in 9/1868.
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There is another image of Gengobei, a magnificent image, in the Lyon Collection, but this one was drawn by Toyokuni I 67 years earlier. See #208.
Related entities
Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周) (artist)Shimizuya Naojirō (清水屋直次郎) (publisher)
Bandō Hikosaburō V (五代目坂東彦三郎) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)
