Torii Kiyomitsu, Sawamura Sōjūrō as Kyō no Jirō

Seigle_Kiyomitsu_Sawamura copy

 

Artist: Torii Kiyomitsu (1735-1785)
Title: Actor Sawamura Sōjūrō as Kyō no Jirō
Date: 1755-1765
Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Gift of Dr. Cecilia Segawa Seigle

This remarkable print by Torii Kiyomitsu (1735-1785) represents the kabuki actor Sawamura Sōjūrō as Kyō no Jirō in a play based on the Tale of the Soga Brothers.

The artist captured the hero in the moment when he saw a mirage produced by the large clamshell showing a splendid palace. This trope of the mirage produced by a clam may be traced back to ancient Chinese mythology. In the book, Konjaku hyakki shūi (Collection of the One Hundred Spectres from the Past and Present), from 1781, Toriyama Sekien illustrated the tale of the enormous hamaguri clam emitting the mirage of palatial splendor.

Further reading:

• Julie Nelson Davis. Partners in Print: Artistic Collaboration and the Ukiyo-e Market. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.

 

Posted by Daria Melnikova
April 26, 2016