Comment - Kabuki scene of three people along an embankment. At left, a toy vendor sounds a small gong, his stand behind him is topped with tiny Edo Kaku kites fluttering in the wind from slender bamboo twigs. A young girl looks up at him with a wary smile, a basket of clams in her hand. At right, a samurai watches with an unhappy frown as he holds a hat from a cord over his back. The towers of a castle along the water's edge can be seen at right, with boats in the harbor and white sails on the horizon. The top shows an elaborate bokashi shading for the blue sky.

The right panel shows Ichimura Uzaemon (市村羽左衛門, red cassette) as toy vendor and actor Kawarazaki Gonjuro (河原崎権十郎, red cassette) as girl with the clam basket.

The right panel also shows actor Kawarazaki Gonjuro (河原崎権十郎, red cassette) in his role of Yazama Jūtarō  (矢間重太郎, yellow cassette), a vassal of the Shioji family in those many stories and adaptions of Kanadehon Chushinggura. Despite the more or less identical landscape in both panels (pebble beach, seaside, bokashi heaven), I suppose these two panels do not belong together.


Series ~


Artist - see Biography


Signature - Toyokuni ga (豊国 画), in red toshidama cartouche (Otoshidama-in, 年玉印)   with yellow carver's seal (彫竹, HoriTake), supposedly Yokogawa Takejiro (横川 "竹" 二郎) and circular censor's seal above on both panels                            

Publisher - Uoya Eikichi (魚屋栄吉) in the lower left yellowish cassettes on both panels 


Image Size -  36.8 x 50.2 cm (14 1/2" x  19 3/4") with margins


Condition - 'double' panel; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical chuban (chuban tate-e);