Toneri Umeomaru 'Sugawara and the Secrets of ...'

Category

Library Item

Item no

343

Title

Toneri Umeomaru from 'Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy' ('Sugawara denju tenarai kagami')

Description

Kan Shojo's retainer, Umeomaru, is depicted subduing two attackers. This is the 'Tempaizan scene' of Act IV from 'Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy', a play inspired by the life of Heian politician and poet Sugawara no Michizane.
Umeomaru is easily identifiable by his garment which is decorated with plum ('ume') blossom. Umeomaru is drawn into a duel with Heima, a retainer to the evil Shihei, who has been instructed to assassinate Sugawara. The struggle ends with Sugawara decapitating Heima with a plum branch before ascending to heaven.

Artist / maker

Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)

Date

1848

Size

35.7 x 24.7 cm.

Type

Wood cut

Location

Art and Design Library

The following information appears on the print:

Signed: Ichiyosai Toyokuni ga
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)
Censor's seal: Mera and Murata (1847 - 1850).
This prints forms the lower part of a vertical diptych, see Item Number 340.

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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