Yoshitoshi: Onoe Kikugorô V as the Hag of Adachi Moor Triptych

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 芳年

Title: Onoe Kikugorô V as the Hag of Adachi   Date: 1890

Onoe Kikugorô V wields a large kitchen knife as the Hag of Adachi Moor, from the kabuki play “The Lonely House”. The poem reads: ‘Through the yûgao vines, a high wind moans at the eaves’. It was written by the poet Keika, and is shown as a poem card at left, underprinted with a light pattern of autumnal susuki grasses and has a light blindprinting of a linen pattern. The kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorô was a close friend of Yoshitoshi, and here we feel the intimacy of their connection.  The scene is from one of the most famous and terrifying stories in Japanese folklore, that of the bloodthirsty hag who lives alone on the moor, waiting for victims. Here Yoshitoshi presents a combination of what would have been seen on the kabuki stage by theatergoers with the shriveled and emaciated figure of a decrepit old crone of the imagination. These late kabuki triptychs are considered some of Yoshitoshi’s most powerful designs. He has pared down the background to just the yugao vine against a deep black, which snakes serpentlike through the three sheets in a way that unifies the composition in addition to creating a haunting effect.

Toshikata, Yoshitoshi’s student and friend, amassed an impressive collection of Yoshitoshi’s drawings and prints, all  of them beautiful impressions. 

Provenance: Toshikata.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Seals of Toshikata each page.
Dimensions: oban triptych (each sheet approx 36.6 x 24.2 cm)
Publisher: Akiyama Buemon

Literature: See “Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent”, page 147, number 58. See the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

Seal: Taiso; Block cutter is Hori Yû
Signature: Ôkokkeidôju Yoshitoshi ga

SKU: YOC075S