Kan Shojo - Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy)

Category

Library Item

Item no

340

Title

Kan Shojo Michizane from the play 'Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy' (Sugawara denju tenarai kagami)

Description

Kan Shojo (Sugawara no Michizane) from the play 'Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy' is depicted invoking thunder. In this scene, with a branch of his favourite plum blossom gripped between his teeth, Kan Shojo transforms himself into the God of Thunder and flies off to Kyoto to prevent his enemy, Shihei, from gaining power.

Artist / maker

Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)

Date

1847

Size

36.5 x 25.5 cm.

Type

Wood cut

Location

Art and Design Library

The following information appears on the print:

Signed: Toyokuni ga
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)
Censor's seals: Mera and Murata (1847 - 1850).
Retails seal: discreet sale (shita-uri)
Top part of a vertical diptych (see Item Number 343)

The story of Kan Shojo was inspired by the actual events surrounding the life of the exiled statesman and poet Sugawara no Michizane. Dramatized originally for the puppet theatre ('bunraku' or 'ningyo joriuri') it was rewritten for the Kabuki theatre.
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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