Sumo Prints by Katsukawa Shun'ei

Asayama Ashikuni’s Shikanjô Album: Focus- Sumo Prints by Katsukawa Shun’ei ing on Ashikuni as Painter, Publisher and Utaemon’s Patron Ôkubo Noriko Soda Megumi Nakamura Utaemon III (Nakamura Shikan I, The Tenmei era saw the peak of an Edo trend of using 1778–1838) was born in the Kamigata region and was sumo performances as fundraising events. The Katsukawa a leading kabuki actor during the Bunka-Bunsei eras. school of ukiyo-e artists also began to produce sumo prints Utaemon III is known to have had numerous passionate using portrait images of the wrestlers of the day, and held supporters and fans, with countless numbers of prints and a decisive position in this genre. With the beginning of printed books produced with Utaemon III in their title. the Kansei era, Katsukawa Shun’ei (1762–1819) became The trend for harikomichô, or scrapbook-like albums, the central figure in this particular ukiyo-e genre. While that contained poems praising Utaemon, programs for Shun’ei was adept at a range of subjects, his sumo prints the plays he performed in and actor portrait prints were have rarely been studied in depth. This article considers particularly noteworthy among Utaemon-related works. Shun’ei’s sumo prints in chronological order and aims These harikomichô came to be known as shikanjô (芝翫 to clarify his stylistic changes and influence relationship 帖), a title that includes Utaemon III’s haiku pen name. with other print artists. These shikanjô were produced in large numbers in the The early Tenmei era through the beginning of the Kamigata area. Kansei era is thought to be a time when Shun’ei shifted from The newly discovered Shikanjô by Asayama Ashi- copying to the formation of his own pictorial style, shedding kuni (private collection, referred to here as Ashikuni’s influence from his predecessors and setting out to depict Shikanjô) has 18 play programs related to Utaemon III, sumo wrestlers as imposing bodies with exaggerated mus- and seven actor portrait paintings pasted into the album. culature. This tendency lessened from the late Kansei era The dates of the programs pasted into this album, namely to around the Kyôwa era, when he arrived at compositions the 11th month of Bunka 9 (1812) to the 3rd month of consisting of large images of sumo wrestlers in ôban format Bunka 11 (1814), coincide with the period when Utaemon prints. From the end of the Kansei era through the Kyôwa returned to Osaka from Edo, before he going back to Edo. era and on to the beginning of the Bunka era, Shun’ei Given this factor, we can surmise that this album was cre- created a wide range of prints, including images of the ated to celebrate Utaemon’s return to Osaka. sumo wrestlers’ private lives, such as enjoying a banquet The album cover is completely covered with the or dressed in vivid kimono, as well as works jointly created shikan-ori fabric composed of the Naka and Uta char- with Utamaro. These works were all drawn with generous acters of Nakamura Utaemon’s name, along with his brushstrokes to create a brand festive image. Indeed, this family crests “gion mamori” and “tsurubishi,” and other period can be described as the time in which he developed Utaemon-related crests. These factors indicate that this al- his most Shun’ei style sumo prints. His style underwent bum is one of the so-called shikanjô albums. The majority further changes from the Bunka era through the Bunsei of extant shikanjô contain actor pictures by several artists, era, as he shifted to a simpler style rendered in finer lines. but this album is noteworthy for the fact Ashikuni painted There was also an increase in works created with reused all of the paintings pasted into the album. print blocks. This article considers these features along During the Bunka-Bunsei eras Ashikuni was par- with the sumo pictures created during his final years and ticularly active in the creation of illustrations for nehon after his death, such as those by Shuntei and Shunwa. The (kabuki illustrated play books) and yomihon, and actor works from this period are complicated in terms of produc- pictures in both polychrome print and painting format. tion date and stylistic development thanks to the diversity As is the case with many of his fellow Kamigata ukiyo-e of successive works that reused earlier print blocks, and artists, the details of his career are not known. However, it thus their date-related evidence must be carefully noted. has become known that Ashikuni was added to the Osaka In particular, Bunka era sumo prints reveal extant Shun’ei guild of booksellers under the name of Nunoya Chûza- works with Shuntei signatures intermingled with those burô. Ashikuni was famous for being a patron of Utaemon, drawn by Shuntei himself. Thus, we can note that changes and along with operating a bookstore; he also produced were made to the signature areas during Shun’ei’s own illustrations for printed books praising Utaemon III. This lifetime. By Shunwa’s time, with his production beginning article explores the background of the production of the in the Bunsei era, the majority of his works followed those Ashikuni Shikanjô by focusing on Ashikuni as artist, of Kunisada, not those of the Katsukawa school, suggesting bookseller and Utaemon patron. that by that time the Utagawa school had a definite leading role in sumo pictures. Thus, we can conclude that sumo pictures by the Katsukawa school declined after Shun’ei’s death. 73.

Load more