Utagawa Yoshitaki (歌川芳滝) (artist 1841 – 1899)
Onoe Tamizō II (尾上多見蔵) as the ani Yakozō (兄横蔵), the older brother on the right, and Arashi Rikaku II (嵐璃) as the otōko Jihizō (弟慈悲蔵), the younger brother, from a performance of Honchō Nijūshi Kō (本朝廿四孝)
10/1861
14.25 in x 9.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Yoshitaki ga (芳瀧画)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ritsumeikan University (right)
Ritsumeikan University (left)
Lyon Collection - Kunichika print of Yakozō The play Honchō Nijūshi Kō is the kabuki version of Japan's '24 Examples of Filial Piety'. There are at least two other prints in the Lyon Collection based on this theme: #1116 by Kuniyoshi and #1334 by Hokushu.
The basic plot of this play portrays the military rivalry between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, known here as Nagao Kenshin, carried out during the Japanese civil wars in the Sengoku period. These two enemies are forced to work together to seek out the assassin of the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
The best known act from this play today is the one that deals with love affair of Yaegakihime and her involvement in returning the precious helmet adorned with a long white fox fur.
This scene, the Kansuke Sumika Urate Takeyabu or 'Bamboo Grove behind Kansuke's home' is described by Kabuki21:
"...Jihizô has been asked by his mother to get bamboo shoots from under the snow in the bamboo thicket adjoining the house. While he is digging the ground, his spade strikes something hard, which is supposed to be a chest containing the secret books of strategy hidden by his late father. Yokozô, who has been spying on Jihizô's action, suddenly appears and claims the secret books. The brothers quarrel and come to blows, each trying to get hold of the secret books."****
Two kabuki actors carrying a wrapped and bound parcel through a snowy bamboo grove.
****
Yakozō appears in two prints in the Lyon Collection, this one and one by Kunichika. (Click on the link above.)
Arashi Rikaku II (二代目嵐璃珏: 11/1831 to 7/14/1864) (actor)
Onoe Tamizō II (二代目尾上多見蔵: 11/1820-1848; 1850-November, 1885) (actor)
Kyōto-Osaka prints (kamigata-e - 上方絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)