Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Kanadehon Chūshingura, Act 5 ('Copybook of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers': 仮名手本忠臣蔵 - 五段目) - meeting on the Yamazaki Road
11/1854
14.375 in x 9.375 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Date: 11/1854
Censor's seal: aratame & Tiger 11
The Ako City Museum of History (via Ritsumeikan University)
The British Museum - click on the fourth image at the bottom of the page - ex-collection Philip Franz von Siebold
Walters Museum of Art This print records the meeting between Kampei and Senzaki Yagorō at Yamazaki. If you use the enlarging tools you will notice that this meeting is near a sacred site as indicated by the shimenawa or straw rope strung between two of the trees. You will also notice two ema, i.e., votive plaques seen at shrines, in that same area atop tall bamboo poles with illustrations of cocks or roosters on them. This must have some kind of meaning but what it is is as yet unknown to us. This print dates from 1854 which is not a rooster year in the Japanese zodiac cycle. 1849 and 1861 were.
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Kabuki21 summurizes Act V as: "One dark and rainy night Kanpei is out hunting. He runs into one of Hangan's retainers on a country road and expresses his desire to join their cause. Unsure of Kanpei's trustworthiness, the retainer reveals no details of their plot, but says they are raising funds. Kanpei realizes it is to finance the vendetta and asks to contribute, although he has no ready cash and is dependent on Okaru's parents."
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The curatorial files at the Walters Museum of Art say:
Since Kampei was with his beloved Okaru at the time of his master Hangan's suicide, he feels too disgraced to join the other warriors in their pursuit of vengeance. He has therefore gone off by himself into the countryside. While Kampei is seated with his rifle under a pine during a rainstorm, one of the warriors, Yagoro, happens to come by carrying a lantern. "If I could find some way of meeting Yuranosuke [the leader of the warriors] and persuading him to let me add my seal to those of the others in the league," says Kampei, "my honor would be restored through this and all lives to come."
Chūshingura (忠臣蔵 - 47 Rōnin) (genre)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)
Hayano Kanpei (早勘平) (role)