Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎北洲) (artist ca 1808 – 1832)

Ichikawa Ebijurō I [市川鰕十郎] as Wada Raihachi [和田雷八] at the Sanjūsangen Hall

Print

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Date:01/1824
Dimensions:11 in x 16 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:color woodcut
Inscription:Signed: Shunkōsai Hokushū ga
春好斎北洲画
Artist's seal: Hokushū in red
Publisher: Toshikuraya Shinbei (Marks 539 seal 25-553)
Links Kamigata Ukiyoe Museum
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Hankyu Culture Foundation
Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (via Ritsumeikan University) Description:"To encourage martial skills in the peaceful period that followed the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early seventeenth century, archery contests were held in the 390-foot hall of the Sanjūsangendō in Kyoto, the winner being the archer who shot the most arrows the full length of the hall in a twenty-four hour period. In 1667 Hoshino Kanzaemon shot 8,009 arrows the full length in 10,542 attempts. Twenty years later, that achievement was bettered by Wasa Daihachirō, who succeeded with 8,133 arrows out of 10,053. That record was never surpassed.

A dramatization of Wasa's feat was written by Namiki Gohei, and revised by Nakamura Utaemon III for the present performance. Wada Raihachi (Wasa) is involved in a plot against Koshino Kozaemon (Hoshino) to take over the house into which he has been adopted. The plot involves murders, love affairs, and a lost treasure arrow, and is finally resolved when Koshino exposes Wada's villainy. The present print portrays Wada during the archery contest at Sanjūsangendō at which, in Gohei's play, only a judge is present.

This is possibly the right panel of a diptych. The impression in the Kyota Kyakushoku Jō is cut out, as usual, and a hand-painted wall added, extending far to the left as a background. No other figures are shown. The addition of another panel of architecture at the left, printed in the luxurious, fugitive pink used here, would have been both striking and expensive."

Quoted from: The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints by Roger Keyes, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, page 94. There is a full-page color reproduction on page 95.

[In this writer's opinion, Roger Keyes was wrong in believing this print was a part of a larger composition. While he was right to think so based on "...a hand-painted wall added, extending far to the left as a background" found in a scrapbook, the Kyota Kyakushoku Jō, there are a number of arguments against this. First and foremost is the fact that it was 'hand-painted'. As of today, November 8, 2024, no other panel has been found, even though as we have pointed out through our links, no other major collection that owns this print also owns such an accompanying sheet. And, if there had been such a unadorned printed sheet it would have been sui generis in its production from this time and local, as best we can tell. It wasn't until late in the 19th century that similar, unpopulated panels were created for triptychs or diptych and even then they were produced in the Edo/Tokyo transitional period, and not in Osaka.

We will be glad to concede the point if ever an original diptych appears in the marketplace or in a private collection or that of an institution. But, for now, we don't believe, such a printed composition exists. Comments by Jerry Vegder.]

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About Sanjūsangen-dō (三十三間堂)

The original Sanjūsangen-dō was built in Kyoto at the time of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa.(1127-92). It was started by Taira no Kiyomori for the ex-emperor and was a Buddhist temple of the Tendai sect. It is officially known as Rengeō-in (蓮華王院).

Eventually, as Edo grew into a powerful city, the Rengeō-in was replicated in that local, too.

Centuries ago archery became linked with the mystical elements of this world. Contests weren't just acts of endurance and concentration. They were much, much more and should be viewed as such. The winner of an archery contest was somehow able to help the world harmonize as it should. Einat Bar-On Cohen noted in an article published in Anthropos that kyūdō, 'the way of the bow', "...although the vast majority of kyūdo training has no formal connection to Zen, cultural logics found in Zen, Japanese esoteric Buddhism, and Shintō can also be traced within a kyūdo tournament."

She, that is, Cohen, continued later with: "Buddha was a human who lived a certain life, and through his experience and suffering he ultimately surpassed human capacity and attained Buddhahood. Thus the state of Buddhahood can be said to be an extreme form of humanity, humanity pushed beyond its ordinary limit. The true Buddha nature is inherent in all creatures and humans, and, therefore, attaining Buddhahood is a potential that we all share. We only need to find a path by which we can stretch ourselves to the limit of humanness, as did Buddha; and the densely spiritual space of the Sanjūsangen-dō Temple is a site intended for this realization..."

"Archery is another such path, as the archers can reach beyond the usual human capacity to repeatedly shoot arrows and strike a target. In the corridor behind the western wall of the Sanjūsangen-dō Hall, which is open on one side, archery contests called tōshiya were held. The tōshiya are said to have begun in the 12th century and were reinstated again in the 16th century, during the peaceful Tokugawa era. They became very popular at the beginning of the 17th century, with the winner awarded the title “Best Shooter of Japan”... Even today, the names of the archers who set new records are posted on the temple’s interior corridor. The aim of the contest, in which the archers shot from a seated position, was to shoot as many arrows as possible to the opposite end of the 120-meter-long corridor without touching either roof or wall. The constraint of the roof prevented contestants from shooting in a normal arc trajectory, and even today, the grooves created by arrows lodged in the roof beam can be seen."

"Tōshiya eventually became standardized and institutionalized; the archers shot approximately 600 arrows per hour: one arrow every six seconds... Asaoka Heibei’s 1599 record of 51 successful shots was repeatedly exceeded until Hoshino Kanzaemon reached 8,000 shots in 1679; 17 years later, in 1686, Wasa Daihachirō successfully shot 8,133 arrows, a record that will probably never be surpassed... It is told, that in 1679, after resting for a short while, Wasa found that he could no longer shoot. A man came up to him took a small knife and made a number of tiny cuts on Wasa Daihachiro’s left hand, which had become so gorged with blood that he could no longer hold the bow properly. Once the pressure was released, Wasa Daihachiro regained his strength and went on to surpass all previous attempts. The man who had cut Wasa’s hand was none other than Hoshino Kanzaemon, the previous record holder, who had done his utmost to help the younger archer surpass his own record... Although both archers sought to set new records and we remember both their names, they worked towards the same goal of extending the frontiers of human capacity: Tōshiya was aimed at extending human potentiality to the extreme."

Cohen added in a footnote: "When the tōshiya were originally held, the corridor was covered but one side left open; today it is enclosed on both sides."

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Another similar version of the Sanjūsangen-dō from Kyoto was erected in the Edo area. However, while the temple in Kyoto was dedicated to Buddhism, the one in Edo was and is Shinto. The archery competitions are held in both places.

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This play, Appare keisei makura no tōriya, was written by the celebrity actor Nakamura Utaemon III (1778-1838) who revised an earlier drama by an important Osaka playwright. The story involves an attempt to overthrow a master archer, more than one murder, romantic entanglements, an archery contest, and a lost heirloom arrow. In this staging in the first month of 1824, the actor Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (1777-1827) has the role of Wada Raihachi, based on the historical figure Wasa Daihachirō who in 1687 shot a record-breaking 8,133 arrows in one 24-hour period, the entire length of the Sanjūsangendō hall (390 feet). In the kabuki play, Wasa is exposed as a villain involved in a violent inheritance plot, although the real archer had no such stigma.

This information was provided by Cori Sherman North.

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Illustrated:

1) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, vol. 9, Kodansha, 1989, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, p. 206, #133.

2) in a full-page color reproduction in The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints: A Collection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Woodblock Prints in the Philadelphia Museum of Art by Roger Keyes and Keiko Mizushima, 1973, pp. 94-95.
Related entities Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (初代市川鰕十郎 9/1815 to 7/1827) (actor)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
Toshikuraya Shinbei (利倉屋新兵衛) (publisher)
Nakamura Utaemon III (三代目中村歌右衛門) (actor)
Namiki Gohei (初代並木五瓶) (author)

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