Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/168

Sharaku-mark.png

anogawa Ichimatsu III probably as Sekinoto, the wife of Banzayemon.

We believe that we are correct in placing this print here and in identifying the rôle as that of Sekinoto. It is fair, however, to call attention to the fact that the actor is represented in numbers 11 and 12 with a similar hair arrangement and in a costume in which the so-called “Ichimatsu design” of white squares is equally prominent.

The only known impression has been reproduced in the dealer’s advertisement to which we have referred so often, and as Rumpf number 64. The present whereabouts of the print is unknown and we have been obliged to rephotograph the very small cut in Rumpf’s book. The coloring of the costume has been described as black and red. The hand-written inscription gives the name of the actor, and before leaving the somewhat controversial question of the proper placing of this print and the two others, numbers 48 and 49, which might possibly have to do with the fifth month production at the Miyako-za, it may be not wholly irrelevant to add that eight out of the fourteen inscribed hosoye which came together to Germany and are reproduced in the dealer’s advertisement seem to be connected in subject with, while the six others belong with even later plays.

Hosoye. Yellow ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.