Preparatory drawing for a not identified chuban diptych.

Artist: unknown
Date: 1850's

Two unsigned okubi-e drawings.
(attributed to Hirosada / school of Hirosada)
dimension: chuban

(active 1820 - 1860)

Signature: Hirosada
Actor / play: Nakamura Utaemon IV as Kajiwara Heiji (梶原平次)
and Nakayama Nanshi II as the chamber maid (こしもと/ koshimoto) Chidori (千鳥)
Title: first act (巻ノ壱) of the play Hiragana Seisuiki (ひらかな盛衰記)
Date: performed at the Naka-za, Osaka, 8/1851
Dimension: chuban diptych / standard edition
Lit.: Kitagawa, "Bosuton bijutsukan shozô Kamigata-e mokuroku" (Kansai daigaku, 2007), p. 107; Ikeda bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shûsei, vol. 4 (2003), #377

A small copy of the diptych.
h 12 x w 16 cm,  unsigned

Special thanks to Ward Pieters for additional infos about this print and the japanese names and titles.

Scene from the same play >> click

Sadahiro
(active after 1850)

print proof
chuban triptych

title, date etc. unknown

Suzuki Harunobu (1725 - 1770)

artist: Suzuki Harunobu
title: Ehon Haru no Nishiki (vol. 1 of 2, panel 5)
date: 1771
size: ehon double-page
lit.: Toda s.172-173.
ex-collection Julius Kurth

The print is shown in his book "Suzuki Harunobu", München & Leipzig 1910, page 68,panel 23



A different version of the print.

Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1751)

artist: Nishikawa Sukenobu
title: Onna manyô keiko zôshi - Manuel épistolaire pour les dames
date: 1728
publisher: Yamaguchi Mohei & Otgawa Hikokuro
ex-collection Julius Kurth

The image does not show the text that is usually in the lower third (maybe it is a print proof).
Julius Kurth wrote a different description on the back: "Ehon asaka yama / 1739"
Richard Lane says that there is an re-edition from 1742 with the title "Jokyo bunsho kagami".

The complete double-page from the ehon with text.



A single print, attributed to Sukenobu.