Utagawa Sadamasu (歌川貞升) (artist )

Nakamura Utaemon IV [中村歌右衛門] as Ishidome Busuke (石留武助) from the play Keisei Homare no sukedachi or A Courtesan: Honor with Two Swords [けいせい誉両刀]

Print

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Date:01/1850
Dimensions:6.75 in x 9.625 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Unsigned
Links Waseda University
Lyon Collection - a related print by Yoshitake - click on the added jpeg to see the connection Description:When Mike Lyon originally purchased this print in 1997, although it was unsigned, it was stylistically attributed to Hirosada. This seemed reasonable. It was posted online at this site on December 19, 2013 as such. However, in mid-April, 2025, a gentleman contacted Mike telling him that he owned a copy of this image, but that his copy was clearly signed 'Kunimasa ga' (aka Sadamasu) and bore a publisher's seal for Ningyōichi (人形市 - Marks U237) in red in the lower left edge border outside of the image itself.

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The figure of Ishidome Busuke also appeared earlier in the bunraku play The Vendetta in Iga (Iga-goe dōchū sugoroku - 伊賀越道中双六).

Osaka Prints admitted in reference to a diptych by Hirosada that they could not find information about this particular play, i.e., Keisei Homare no sukedachi, but did agree that it was an offshoot of the vendetta story-line mentioned above. They wrote: "It appears to be an adaptation of a real life vendetta in 1634 at Iga Ueno when Watanabe Kazuma slayed Kawai Matagorô, the murderer of his father, Watanabe Yukie, killed four years earlier. Kazuma was aided by his brother-in-law, the master swordsman Araki Mataemon."

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The name Ishidome Busuke is sometimes transliterated as Ishitome Busuke.
Related entities actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)

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