“Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjüro as Meguro Fudömyöö with Actor Nakamura Denkurö”
For today, a ukiyo-e print from the Torii school…
“Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjüro as Meguro Fudömyöö with Actor Nakamura Denkurö” is a color ink on silk woodblock print. This print dates to sometime between 1750 and 1754 and is by the Japanese artist, Torii Kiyomasu II. Historians think the artist is likely the same person as Torii Kiyomasu of the Torii school, though he started to sign his name as Kiyomasu II later in life.
In this piece, Kiyomasu depicts the Buddhist god, Fudō Myoo, holding a sword in one hand, and a rope in the other to challenge his opponents. He is standing in swirling flames. Kneeling at his feet are his two attendants, Kongara-doji, and Seitaka-doji. The setting is the Ryusenji, the Meguro Fudō, which is a Tendai Buddhist temple. The limited color palette of rose and green ink is indicative of the benizuri-e style, a popular woodblock print palette during the ukiyo-e period.
This piece was originally published by Maruya Kohei who produced many prints from this time. The advertisement is for a Sogamono, a play about the Soga brothers. This is a classic story of revenge and the restoration of honor that was very popular and produced many times during this period.
The Torii school (鳥居派), was a form of ukiyo-e painting and printing that emerged in Edo, Japan after the arrival of Torii Kiyonobu in 1687. The Torii school worked with the Kabuki theater to design and create signboards and other promotional materials, such as this actor print shown here.
This print of “Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjüro as Meguro Fudömyöö with Actor Nakamura Denkurö” was recently sold at auction and is currently in a private collection. Another print of the same image can be seen at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo, Japan.
For more on Torii Kiyomasu, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
