Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972)
The tragic heroine Osai holding the crested sash of Sasano Gonza, whom she is secretely in love with. A scene from the Bunraku tragedy "Yari no Gonza Kasane Katabira" (Gonza, the Lancer), written in 1717 by Chikamatsu Monzaemon.
Series: Dai Chikamatsu zenshû furoku mokuhan (Woodblock printed supplements to the complete works of Chikamatsu).
Signature: Kiyokata saku. Seal: unread
Publisher: Dai Chikamatsu zenshū kankōkai (Society for the Publication of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu).
Date: Taishô 12 (1923)
Size: Vertical Dai-Ôban, 32.7 x 24 cm (image), 46.2 x 29.5 cm (overall)
Excellent impression and colours. Full margins. Paper slightly age-toned, a very weak small spot in top margin. Verso in top margin two small paper remnants from previous attachment. Overall very nice condition.
For this series of 18 exquisite colour woodblock prints some of the most renowned artists of the time were commissioned to each illustrate a drama by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725). The edition was published on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the playwright’s death, whose influence on the Japanese theatre can only be compared to that of Shakespeare in the West.
Ill. in Amy Reigle Newland/Hamanaka Shinji, The female image. Tokyo/Leiden, 2000, p. 95, no. 122. See also MFA Boston Spaulding Coll., no. 48.739; Harvard Art Museums, no. 1941.54; LACMA, no. M.71.100.40; Smithsonian (Freer/Sackler), No. S2003.8.419; Waseda no. 201-0226 a.o.
sold