Artist: Torii Kiyomitsu (1735-85)
Title: Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX in the role of Ichihara no Kidomaru
Date: 1765
Medium: Color woodblock print (benizuri-e)
Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi
Gift of Dr. Cecilia Segawa Seigle

Young actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX appears here in the role of Ichihara no Kidomaru. Looking to the right, he holds a downturned hobby horse in his left hand. The costume is boldly decorated with floral designs and is arranged about the figure in sweeping curves. The green on his robe seems to recede into the background, giving an effect of transparency, the patterns on his robe seeming to float in mid-air. A large number of prints in large and panel formats were published in these colors. When exposed to light or moisture the mineral green did not change, but the organic pink dye would fade, as on this print.

Torii Kiyomitsu designed several large pictures of actors; one of the liveliest is this portrait of the actor Uzaemon IX. In much of his work, Kiyomitsu adhered to the Torii formula of actor designs, but he sometimes also drew bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people).

Selected Readings

• The Japanese print: Its evolution and essence. Tokyo; Palo Alto, Calif.: Kodansha International, 1966.

• Keyes, Roger S., and Robert L. Feller. Japanese woodblock prints: a catalogue of the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection, 1984.

• Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Drawings, from the Henri Vever Collection: Part I

• Lane, Richard. Images from the floating world: the Japanese print: including an illustrated dictionary of ukiyo-e. Book Sales, 1978.

• Faulkner, Rupert, Basil William Robinson, and Richard Lane. Masterpieces of Japanese prints: Ukiyo-e from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Kodansha Amer Incorporated, 1999.

Other Impressions

Not found in any other collections; may be a unique copy

Posted by Harshad Maral
April 26, 2016

Updated by Julie Nelson Davis
June 6, 2018