The actor Ichikawa Danjuro II as Soga no Goro Tokimune sharpening his arrow, in the play Yanone Goro.
Danjuro II, the Great Hakuen, Approved by Sansho VII, Nidaime Dai Hakuen Danjuro - kiwame shichidaime Sansho, with seal: Yau, from an untitled series on The Danjuro Family Tradition of Kabuki Actors.
Ichikawa Danjuro II (1688-1758), the son of Ichikawa Danjuro I, first acted under the name Ichikawa Kuzo. He acted under the name Danjuro, using that of Hakuen when writing poetry from VII/1704 to X/1735, when he adopted the name Ichikawa Ebizo II.
Here he is seen playing Yanone Goro, a role he first portrayed in I/1729 in the performance of Suehiro eho Soga, staged at the Nakamura Theatre in Edo, having already played the role of Soga no Goro fifteen times since 1708. The second Danjuro who used the name Hakuen, Danjuro IV, only performed Yanone Goro once during his life, in 1758.
One poem by Rokujuen [Yadoya no Meshimori, 1753-1830].
The poem reads:
Hakuen’s performance of Goro is like the turnip-shaped head of an arrow, polished with the water of the Ichikawa river
- probably also suggesting that Hakuen is like ‘the head of the family’, Ichikawa translating literally as ‘the River of the City’.
Issued by the Danjuro Fan Club
Signature reading: the late ko Toyokuni hitsu
