'Chivalrous Commoners' series

Category

Library Item

Item no

337

Title

'Chivalrous Commoners' series ('Otokodate Honcho Tsunagoro')

Description

Actor portrait of Ichikawa Danjuro VIII in the role of Honcho Tsunagoro. Wardsmen (otokodate) were also known as 'chivalrous commoners' and in the popular imagination they were regarded as heroes who defended the ordinary townspeople against the abuses of corrupt samurai. Otokodate are usually shown with a flute (shakuhachi). This instrument was supposed to indicate that these men were culturally refined but in actuality the flute often was used as a truncheon to deliver beatings. 'The Chivalrous Spirits' series by Kunisada consists of five actor portraits. The patterns of each of the five prints are puns on the character's names. In this print, the background lines (tsuna) and the textile design of the thick ropes (tsuna) relate to Tsunagoro. The series of five prints subtly references the 'Karigane Five' otokodate of popular legend and Kabuki theatre.

Artist / maker

Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)

Date

1844

Size

38 x 26.5 cm.

Type

Wood cut

Location

Art and Design Library

The following information appears on the print:

Signed: Oju Toyokuni ga
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)
Censor's seal: Yoshimura

This is one of a set of 50 prints donated to Edinburgh City Libraries by Marie Ferguson Dyer in honour of her father Henry Dyer. Dyer was a Scottish engineer who became the first Principal of the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo in 1872.

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