Page 157 - September 21 2021 Important Japanese Art Christie's NYC

226 UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861)

Boy's day decoration with

Danjuro as The Demon Queller
Shoki

Woodblock print, surimono, signed Ichiyusai
Kuniyoshi ei, sealed Kuniyoshi, circa 1849
Obirobosho surimono: 17 x 22¡ in. (43.2 x 56.8
cm.)

$15,000-20,000

This oversize surimono was commissioned by two groups of the fifth day of the fifth month. Shoki paintings also acted as
wealthy fishmongers, the Shinga and the Uogashi, on the talismans against bad luck and disease, and assured future health
occasion of the departure for Osaka by the celebrated by the and prosperity; sentiments that the actor's fan clubs would
celebrated actor Ichikawa Danjuro VIII, also known as Sansho certainly have wished extended to their idols.
after his family's distinctive crest. The actor was about to visit
To the left of Shoki, and the focus of his wide-eyed, squinting
his famous father Danjuro VII (Ebizo V), who had been living
glare, is a paper tag upon which Kuniyoshi has playfully painted
in the Kansai area since 1842 after his exile from Edo for
a fleeing demon. In the background floats a large paper carp
infractions of the government's sumptuary laws.
streamer, rendered in black to indicate that the two poetry
Danjuro VIII is portrayed as Shoki (known in China as Zhong groups' felicitations are directed to both father and son. Poems
Kui), a Chinese mythological figure easily recognizable by from members of the two groups appear at the top right and
his bulging eyes, bushy beard, military outfit, scholar's hat, bottom left. In the bottom right corner are short verses by
and straight, double-edged sword whose hilt is just visible in Kuniyoshi himself, the block-cutter Hori Takejiro, and the
Kuniyoshi's image. In Japan it became common for families printer Suriko Masa, in addition to the well-known Kabuki
with boys to hang Shoki's image on banners outside their homes, aficionado Goryutei Tokusho (1793-1853), who presumably
along with large paper carp, to celebrate the Boy's Festival on acted as one of the judges of the poems included.