A samurai standing under flowering cherries at night, raising his wicker hat.
Print from the diptych A Series of Two Prints, Nibantsuzuki.
The samurai is the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Fuwa Banzaemon, a role he interpreted several times. This print was probably made after a performance of the play Soga no shimadai, staged in I/1827 at the Kawarasaki Theatre. Another possible occasion would be after his interpretation of the same role in Edosuki kiku no datezome, staged in XI/1831 at the Ichimura Theatre in Edo. The left sheet of this diptych shows Onoe Kikugoro III (1784-1849) in the role of Nagoya Sanza.
Two poems by Fukusaien Yonenari [not the same as Honensha Yonenari, a pupil of Fukunoya Uchinari], and Fukuyoshi Harutomo.
In the first poem, the ‘evening cherry’ is likened to snow; the second is so associative that it can hardly be translated, going from ‘the new bamboo blinds in the main street of the Yoshiwara’ to an ‘over-kimono’ and then to ‘the man in the moon shining on the blossoms’.
Here, the title ‘A Series of Two Prints’ simply indicates that this print is one half of a diptych.
The Shipporen was never very active as publishers.
We only know of Kyoka on the Suikoden, Kyoka Suikoden, a volume with illustrations by Gakutei dating from 1822, and, by the same designer, a series for 1832 of seven prints with beauties as the Seven Gods of Fortune or Luck, titled A Parody on the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, Mitate shichifukujin (RP-P-1958-393, RP-P-1991-551).
Issued by the Shipporen
Signature reading: Gototei Kunisada ga, with Toshidama rings
