Kunisada: Shihei (Sold)

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada
Title: Shihei
Series: From Contest of Roles : Mirror of “Tenarai Kagami” (hanakurabe tenarai kyô no uchi)
Date: 9/1852

One of ten portraits from Kabuki Sugawara’s Secrets of Calligraphy (Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami). Fujiwara Shihei, Minister of the Left, who was supposed to share power at the imperial court with Sugawara, Minister of the Right, known as Kan Shôjô. Shihei is portrayed as a person of intrigue in the play. He uses his chance to send Kan Shôjô to exile in Kyûshû and further, orders to kill Shôjô’s son, Kan Shûsai--instead he kills the son of his own retainer Matuô-maru, Kotarô. The picture shows the scene from Pulling the Carriage, “kurumabiki” at Yoshida Shrine.

Dimensions: ôban
Publisher: Kogaya Katsugorô
Seal: censor’s seals: Hama Yahei & Magomi Kangeyû, Date seal: 9h month of Rat year (1852)
Signature: Toyokuni ga

SKU: KUS255