About This Print
An illustration of the stage set for the play Kamakura Sandaiki [Three Generations of Kamakura Shoguns] written by Takeda Izumo II (1691-1756) and others and first staged in 1748 under a different title.This set presents us with the house in Kinugawa Village,
Orachi where Toza's mother is convalescing. Betrayal, murder and suicide will follow!
For those unfamiliar with the stage set for bunraku the following passages from Donald Keene's Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre are instructive:
"Soon after the chanter enters his description of the new scene, the curtain is drawn aside to reveal the set, a naturalistic rendering of a landscape or interior. If the backdrop represents an outdoor scene, it is painted on a series of vertical panels which may be moved laterally to suggest that characters (who remain in one place) are traveling. If an interior, the gate, framework of the house, and generally one room are depicted, with the suggestion of other rooms beyond. A garden or nearby building may also be represented. A doorway at the rear-center of the stage is usual, for it permits the female characters to make spectacular exists, displaying their figures from behind. Very few props are used; unless necessary to the action, the furnishings are generally painted on the backdrop, to allow the operators the maximum freedom of movement.
The Bunraku stage, traditionally 36 feet wide, 25 feet deep, and 15 feet high, is divided into various playing areas. The main stage occupies about half the total area, and often serves as the interior of a house. Three raised partitions of different heights run across the width of the stage, standing before the trench-like passages in which the operators work. The partitions conceal the lower half of the principal operator's body, more of the operator of the left hand (who does not wear high-platformed clogs), and almost all of the operator of the feet; at the same time, they provide tha apparent floor or ground level on which the puppets walk or sit. To the audience's right is a dais projecting into the auditorium from the stage. There the chanter perches on bulky cushions before an elaborately fashioned reading-stand; to his left, the samisen player sits on a single cushion, dwarfed by the chanter."
1 Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre, Donald Keene and Hiroshi Kaneko, Kodansha International, Ltd., 1965, p. 22.
Brief Plot Summary
Miuranosuke is a samurai serving the lord of a besieged castle. Tokihime, the woman he is betrothed to marry, is the daughter of the lord leading the attack on the castle. While he is away at battle, she comes to a lonely farming village to care for his sick mother. Miuranosuke comes back from the battle to see his mother, but she refuses to let him in since he has come away from his duties. In turn, Miuranosuke refuses to see Tokihime because she is the daughter of the enemy. Finally, all is revealed to be a plot by the brilliant strategist Takatsuna, to force Tokihime to assassinate her father.
explanatory sheet
鎌倉三代記
Source: The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University 201-1528
click on image to enlarge
About the "Illustrated Collection of Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza"
新版歌祭文 お染久松
Shinpan Utazaimon: Osome HisamatsuThe New Scandalous Ballad of Osome and Hisamatsu 仮名手本忠臣蔵 忠臣蔵、七段目
Kanadehon Chūshingura – shichi danmeThe Treasury of Loyal Retainers: Act 7 仮名手本忠臣蔵 忠臣蔵、五段目
Kanadehon Chūshingura – go danmeThe Treasury of Loyal Retainers: Act 5 仮名手本忠臣蔵 前段続き
Kanadehon Chūshingura – zendan tsudukiThe Treasury of Loyal Retainers: Introduction 伊賀越道中双六 伊賀越敵討
Igagoe dōchū sugoroku - Igagoe katakiuchiThe Revenge at Igagoe - Vengance at Igagoe 一の谷嫩軍記 一谷嫩軍記、組打
Ichinotani futaba gunki - kumiuchiChronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani – The Duel 鎌倉三代記
Kamakura sandaikiThree Generations of Kamakura Shoguns 心中天網嶋 小春治兵衛
Shinjū ten nō amajima - Koharu JiheiThe Love Suicides at Amijima - Koharu Jihei 義経千本桜 静忠信道行
Yoshitsune senbon zakura - ? michiyukiYoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees - travel dance 菅原伝授手習鑑 車引き
Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami – kurumabikiSugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy - the struggle for the carriage 本朝廿四孝 十種香
Honchō nijū shikō – jusshukōTwenty-four Examples of Filial Piety – The Incense Burning 夏祭浪花鑑 団七九郎兵衛
Natsumatsuri Naniwa kagami – Danshichi KurobeiSummer festival at Naniwa (Osaka)– Danshichi Kurobei
Each performance was represented in the collection by an explanatory sheet plus one print showing a stage set from the play and three portraits of the play's main characters, as shown below.
Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees
click on image to enlarge
It is likely that the prints were sold, at least in part, by subscription, as decorative enclosures exist for the four prints and the explanatory sheet for each of the plays. A decorative portfolio or outer box containing the entire set of plays was also issued. The two colophons I've seen for the set (see below) indicate that the explanatory sheets were written by Hasegawa Konobu, the artist who designed the prints and, likely, the person who conceived of the collection.
At an unknown later date, Uchida Publishing obtained the blocks and re-issued the prints depicting puppets. The Uchida published prints bear the hexagonal seal of Uchida.
The collection's title 日本名物大阪文楽座人形画集 (Ōsaka Bunraku-za Ningyō Gashū: Nihon Meibutsu) has been variously translated as Illustrated Collection of the Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza; Book of Noted Puppets of the Bunrakuza, Osaka and Famous Products of Japan: Osaka Bunraku Theatre Dolls, Book of Prints.
For a detailed history of the Puppet Theater in Osaka please see the National Diet Library page http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/column/kansai/goryo_bunrakuza.html
1 Hangakai hanmoto is also seen written as 板畫會板元
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1658 |
| Title or Description | Bunraku Theater Stage Set for Three Generations of Kamakura Shoguns Bunraku ningyō butaizu Kamakura Sandaiki 文楽人形、舞台図、鎌倉三代記 |
| Series | Illustrated Collection of the Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza Ōsaka Bunraku-za Ningyō Gashū: Nihon Meibutsu 日本名物大阪文楽座人形画集 |
| Artist | Hasegawa Sadanobu III (Konobu III) (1881-1963) |
| Signature | not signed |
| Seal | not sealed |
| Publication Date | originally Taishō 15 (1926) |
| Publisher | 美術社 Bijutsusha, Tokyo and 版画会板元 Hangakai hanmoto, Kyoto |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent |
| Genre | puppet theater stage set picture 文楽人形、舞台図 bunraku ningyō, butaizu |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 9 1/4 x 15 1/8 in. (23.5 x 38.4 cm) |
| H x W Image | 7 9/16 x 14 3/8 in. (19.2 x 36.5 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University 作品番号:201-1493 and 201-1532A; Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center; National Diet Library |
last revision:
11/20/2018
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