Actor Ichikawa Sadanji I as Wada's Retainer Busuke in the Play Revenge at Igagoe, from an untitled series of twenty-two actor portraits
Artist
Toyohara Kunichika
(Japanese, 1835 - 1900)
Depicted
Ichikawa Sadanji I
(Japanese, 1842 - 1904)
Date1873
PeriodMeiji period (1868–1912)
MediumWoodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
DimensionsSheet: 13 5/8 × 13 1/4 in. (34.6 × 33.7 cm)
Image: 9 3/4 × 8 3/4 in. (24.7 × 22.2 cm)
Image: 9 3/4 × 8 3/4 in. (24.7 × 22.2 cm)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Charles and Robyn Citrin, 2016
Object numberSN11557.24
Ichikawa Sadanji I appears as the character Wada Shimobe Busuke in the Kabuki play Revenge at Igagoe (Igagoe dōchū sugoroku). The play is one of the better-known vendetta plays in Kabuki and recounts the dramatic revenge by Wada Shimobe and his brother-in-law following the death of Shimobe's father.
Sanaji is ranked with Ichikawa Danjūrō V (1844-1903) as one of the three great Kabuki stars of the Meiji period (1868-1912). The three men were ere collectively known as the Dan-Kiku-Sa. He was the adopted son of the actor Kodanji IV and he figured frequently in Kunichika's single sheet prints and triptychs. Sadanji I's formal and alternative crests appear in the border: the actor's formal crest of an ivy leaf enclosed within an octagon was supposedly given to the actor by Danjūrō IX.
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