Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/114

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akayama Tomisaburō as the courtezan Miyagino who was the older sister of Shinobu and the daughter of Matsushita Mikinojō whom we shall see portrayed in the following number.

The print has been damaged by time and dampness, and the outer kimono now is a rather dull pale blue. The kimono which shows at the neck was printed in purple and white; the intermediate one is in white and rose. The still lovely obi bears a design in yellow against a ground of weathered brick.

The Vignier-Inada Catalogue describes a state of the subject in which the floral pattern was not printed in the obi, and reproduces as number 263 an impression like the one we exhibit which shows this pattern. Another like our own is in the Matsukata Collection and is reproduced as plate 43 of that catalogue. Rumpf for his number 22 rephotographs from the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, but Kurth uses a much trimmed print from his own collection which, however, is of the same state.

The three other impressions in America are in no better condition than the one exhibited, and although the mica background has flaked off or has been washed so that the superimposed signature no longer is visible, we may assume that when the print was issued it was signed as the other known impressions of the subject are, Tōshūsai Sharaku.

Ōban. Dark mica ground.

Fuller Collection.