Sawamura Tossho as Matsuwaka

Vertical ōban. Dimensions: 10 x 14 ¼ in. (25.40 x 36.20 cm)

Artist’s signature: Gokitei Sadafusa ga五亀亭 貞房画

Publisher’s seal: Kawa chō川長 in a vertical rectangle

Censor’s seal: Kiwame 極

Utagawa Sadafusa, also known as Gokitei Sadafusa, was a student of Kunisada and specialized in bijin-e (prints of beautiful women).

In the play Hana Butai Yoshiya Otoko, Matsuwakamaru (also called Matsuwaka) is a young noble who is engaged to Princess Hanako. Matsuwakamaru gets involved in planning a coup d’état, and when the plot is discovered, he goes on the run. Because she is engaged to an outlaw, Princess Hanako is disinherited from the family fortune, and her sister, Princess Sakura is made the heir. Matsuwakamaru secretly kills a noble named Yorikuni (who, incidentally, was the murderer of Matsuwakamaru’s father) and assumes his identity in order to return to the capital and resume his plotting. Meanwhile, the princesses Hanako and Sakura go to view the cherry blossoms at Shinkiyomizudera (a fictional version of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto). They meet the villainous Sarushima Sōta, who instantly falls in love with Princess Hanako, and lies to her that her fiancé is dead. Princess Hanako, in her grief, decides to shave her head and become a Buddhist nun immediately. She takes the name Seigen. On the same day at Shinkiyomizudera, Matsukawamaru, disguised as Yorikuni, has become engaged to Princess Sakura. Immediately following their betrothal, he meets the newly-shorn Seigen, and she is struck by his resemblance to her dead fiancé. She is not sure whether he is really Matsuwakamaru, but she is strongly attracted to him. However, she is deeply conflicted because she has committed herself to a life of spirituality and asceticism. Unable to cope with her longing and guilt, she attempts suicide by jumping off the high terrace of the temple, but survives the fall. Matsuwakamaru revives her, and she tells him that she has decided to break her vows and marry him, but Matsuwakamaru refuses her (since he is now engaged to her sister). A year later (after many other side stories in the play), Seigen is living miserably in a rural hermitage, and her sorrows and regrets have disturbed her mind and damaged her health. She is approached by Sōta, who is still obsessed with her; when she refuses him, he attempts to rape her. She struggles, and Sōta kills her. Matsuwakamaru, crazed with grief, is visited by the ghost of Seigen, who attacks him, but Matsuwakamaru is saved by a family retainer, and this concludes the play. Source: http://www.kabuki21.com/onna_seigen.php, opens in a new window (Google cache accessed 3/2/2016)

This print is likely the left panel of a diptych depicting the moment Seigen and the disguised Matsuwakamaru meet. See ASUM 2009.011.003 for the panel featuring Seigen.

Gift of Barry Rosensteel