A man in a black kimono grasping the stick a woman is using to beat him.
The man is the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII, possibly in the role of Ishikawa Goemon, the woman is the actor Iwai Shijaku as the courtesan Segawa, in reality Goemon’s wife Oritsu, in the play Masago no gohiiki, performed from VIII/1830 in the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo. Normally, one would not expect performances from the Eight Month in surimono, but an exception may have been made because this was Danjuro’s first performance after his tour of western Japan.
Three poems by Yagairo [Takara no] Nakasumi, Sankoro Toyonobu and Baitaro Yoshifuku. Two of the poems on this print contain unmistakable references to the popular kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859), here performing the male role. Nakasumi’s poem refers to the actor’s nickname ‘Oyadama’ (‘Bulging Eye’), Kiba, the district where Danjuro lived, and the three rice measures constituting his stage crest, the Mimasumon, used by the Ichikawa tradition of actors:
A new splendid Spring for ‘Bulging Eye’ Danjuro - the bands of mist draw three lines at Kiba.
In fact, the poem by Yoshifuku has a similar line about ‘mist floating in three lines’. Moreover, it mentions Naritaya, the stage name, yago, of Danjuro VII:
Against today’s purple morning sky, mist floats over the mountains like the three lines of Naritaya.
Issued by poets
Signature reading: Tojuen Kunisada ga, with Toshidama rings
