6
Bandō Mitsugorō II as Ishii Genzō, the brother-in-law and chief aid of the two brothers who in accomplishing their vendetta gave a theme for the play.
The robe worn by the actor is elaborately patterned in white on white with darker tones of dull rose and black to set it off. The handle of his sword is in pale green and yellow.
Kurth, the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 266, Rumpf number 9, Noguchi and Nakata all reproduce an impression which was considerably trimmed at the bottom and which lacked the signature, the publisher’s mark and the censor’s seal. The print, however, was inscribed with the date of the ninth month of 1794 which we discuss in connection with number 2 and elsewhere. An uninscribed impression which had the signature and the seals of the publisher and censor was described in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue under number 266 bis, and this print was illustrated later in the catalogue of prints in the Louvre. The subject is one of the rarer bust-portraits by Sharaku, a fact which may indicate a comparative lack of popularity when it was issued; there are, however, three impressions in America.
Ōban. Dark mica ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.
Museum of Fine Arts (Spaulding Collection).
60
