Hirosada
(active 1820 - 1860)

Igagoe buyuden
Tale of Bravery at Iga Pass

subtitle:
Keisei homare no sukedachi
The Courtesan and the Proud Second in Battle

Performed at Naka Theater 1/1850 (Kaei 3)
Standad printing; the deluxe edition was published by Kyoisa.

a. Nakamura Utaemon IV as Karaki Masaemon (r.) on a veranda listening to ? as Rokuhachi.

b. Two swordsmen with blunt swords are locked in combat, and a third has taken a tumble, under the watchful eyes of Nakamura Utaemon IV as Karaki Masaemon (l.) and Mimasu Daigorô IV as Honda Naiki (r.).

Two episodes from a popular story of revenge. The brother of a murdered samurai tracked the killer over all Japan with the aid of Karaki Masaemon and finally confronted him at Iga Pass. The drama, first performed in 1777, was based on a historical incident of 1634.

A detailed summary of the legend Igagoe Dôchû Sugoroku that was the blueprint for this play you can find here.
A short summary of the story in Roger S. Keyes, Hirosada Osaka Printmaker, p. 103.
Hirosada designed at least ten diptychs, a triptych and three singlesheet prints to illustrate different scenes from this performance.

Lit.: Roger S. Keyes, Hirosada Osaka Printmaker, Long Beach, 1984, p. 103
Kitagawa, "Bosuton bijutsukan shozô Kamigata-e mokuroku" (Kansai daigaku, 2007), p. 105; Ikeda bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shûsei, vol. 4 (2003), #237
Dean J. Schwaab "Osaka Prints", London 1989, fig.218

The first print as deluxe edition: