The Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô V

…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1983;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 62, cat. no. 137 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1991-540

Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse

For general notes on the series, see RP-P-1995-292.

The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as a travelling monk, yamabushi, a large wicker hat attached to his backpack, a staff with little bells in his hands.

Danjuro V, known as Oyadama from Mukojima, Approved by Sansho VII, Godaime Mukojima Oyadama Danjuro - kiwame shichidaime Sansho, with seal: Yau, from un untitled series on The Danjuro Family Tradition of Kabuki Actors.

Ichikawa Danjuro V (1741-1806), the son of Ichikawa Danjuro IV, first acted under the names Matsumoto Koshiro III. He acted under the name Danjuro from XI/1770 to X/1791, when he adopted the name Ichikawa Ebizo. Later, he took the names Ichikawa Hakuen and Naritaya Shichisaemon.

He was particularly attached to roles such as those of Kudo Suketsune and Kagekiyo, but also played various priest roles from 1773 onwards. Although it is difficult to determine in which role he is represented here, it may well be the impressive double role of Mutsube Yoshinori, in reality Nagasaki Kageyuzaemon in Ofuna moriebi no kaomise, staged in XI/1792 at the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo²²Kabuki nenpyo (Chronology of Kabuki), 8 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1973 (1956), vol. 5, p. 143f. or that of Otomo no Kuronushi(?).

The reprint edition with various modifications is in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden (1353-1451).

One poem by Sakuragawa Jihinari [1761-1837?, also Shibarakutei, probably best known as a writer of popular fiction].³³Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 100.

The poem reads:
There’s the gang leader known as the ‘Nose’ - as splendid as the blossoms at Katsushika - he goes back to Mukojima again
- Katsushika and Mukojima were districts on the east bank of Sumida River where Danjuro lived in retirement.

Issued by the Danjuro Fan Club
Signature reading: the late ko Toyokuni hitsu

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 522

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Toyokuni, The Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô V, Japan, 1825', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.446719