View full screen - View 1 of Lot 65. Attributed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) | Memorial portrait (shini-e) of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV | Edo period, 19th century.

The Property of an English Gentleman

Attributed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) | Memorial portrait (shini-e) of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV | Edo period, 19th century

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Lot Closed

March 24, 03:05 PM GMT

Estimate

500 - 800 GBP

Lot Details

Description

The Property of an English Gentleman

Attributed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) 

Memorial portrait (shini-e) of the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV

Edo period, 19th century 


woodblock print, shini-e, depicting the actor Nakamura Utaemon IV in the role of Taira no Kiyomori dressed in monks robes and with shaven head, unsigned, 1852


Vertical oban: 34.5 x 24.1 cm., 13⅝ x 9½ in.

The tanka by the poet Umeya Kakuju, a close friend of Kuniyoshi's, has been translated in by Robert Schaap in Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861, (The Netherlands, 1998), p. 165:


Finally

he went out like a flame

he played his role

we will remember

Taira Shōkoku [Kiyomori]


Hi no kieshi

yō ni nashikeri

wasa wo kino

Taira Shōkoku wa

nagori ni wa shite


For a further example in the collection of the Edo Tokyo Museum, collection ID 94202582, go to: 

https://museumcollection.tokyo/en/works/6252598/