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The Actors Ichikawa Omezo I and Matsumoto Yonesaburo I as Umegawa and Chubei, from an untitled series of double portraits of actors

The Actors Ichikawa Omezo I and Matsumoto Yonesaburo I as Umegawa and Chubei, from an untitled series of double portraits of actors

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Utagawa Toyokuni

In this print, the actors Ichikawa Omezo I and Matsumoto Yonesaburo I play one of the most popular couples of the kabuki stage, the courtesan Umegawa and the merchant Chubei. The domestic play The Love Courier of Yamato was based on true events and revolves around a beautiful courtesan and the son of a farmer, adopted by a merchant, who runs a courier business to transport money. Desperate to buy Umegawa’s freedom, Chubei uses money he is carrying even though the deed was certain to lead to their tragic deaths. The two figures are set in a nondescript background with the actors’ and characters’ names in cursive script. In a popular device often used by Toyokuni, one figure stands and the other kneels or crouches and they are visually connected with a prop like the long samurai sword included here. Unlike most kabuki prints from this period, there is no historical record of a production—scheduled or produced—of this drama with these two popular actors.
Artist
Utagawa Toyokuni
(Japanese, 1769 - 1825)
Title
The Actors Ichikawa Omezo I and Matsumoto Yonesaburo I as Umegawa and Chubei, from an untitled series of double portraits of actors
Date
ca. 1800
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
377 x 255 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3167
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 94, no. 54
  • Osumi, Takeshige, ed. "Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection Ukiyo-e Masterpieces Exhibition." Tokyo: Bun You Associates, 1999.
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 1, No. 2, March/April 1985. p. 1
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 328

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/2/2009–11/26/2009
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008
  • Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/13/1999–6/30/2000

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