Katsukawa Shuntei (勝川春亭) (artist 1770 – 1820)
Actors Viewed As Though in a Revenge Drama (Yakusha mitate kataki-uchi - 役者見立敵討)
1808
10 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Shuntei ga
Publisher: Izumiya Ichibei (Marks 180 seal: 25-365
Censor's seal: kiwame
British Museum - the full triptych
Prints of Japan - for more information about this setting Imaginary scene of eight famous actors at the bay of Enoshima (left panel of a triptych).
Laurence Binyon in the 1916 catalogue of the Japanese prints in the British Museum in A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Woodcuts Preserved in the Sub-department of Oriental Prints and Drawings in the British Museum on page 285 lists a triptych entitled but unillustrated. Listed as Shuntei's number 10: "ACTORS IN A TABLEAU. A tableau from a play of revenge. In the centre two men with swords, one crouching, the other standing over him about to slay. At the r. a woman stretching out her hand with an eager gesture and behind her two men, one with a drawn sword, the other grasping the red trunk of a felled pine. At the l. a fat man sits on a rock, sword in hand, and behind him is a youth thrusting back a woman with his hand. The scene is the seashore on the coast of Kamakura, opposite the little green island of Enoshima with Fuji rising beyond the bay. Pink and red, pale blue and purple in the dresses. Title, Yakusha Mitate Kataki-uchi, Actors' tableau of Slaying in Revenge. Signed, Shuntei gwa. Publisher, Izumiya Ichibei. Seal date, Dragon 4 (1808)." Binyon goes on to note the size of each sheet, that the entire triptych is "... slightly darkened by exposure to smoke" and that it is from the Samuel Tuke collection.
Izumiya Ichibei (和泉屋市兵衛) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (author)