Kunichika: Edo Geisha Miyokichi

Toyohara Kunichika

Zen-aku sanjūroku bijin. 善悪三拾六美人

"This work illustrates a scene from a true story involving the streetwise Edo geisha Miyokichi and the innocent Chijimiya Shinsuke, a silk merchant who has come to the capital from Echigo province. The tale ends tragically when Shinsuke, spurned by the heartless Miyokichi, murders her. The Kabuki adaptation of the story was written by the playwright Kawatake Mokuami (1816-93) in his piece Merrymaking on the eve of the Hachiman festival (Hachiman matsuri yomiya no nigiwai of 1860.

Kunichika portrays Miyokichi in a sinking pleasure boat on the Sumida river. A price of two sen five rin (1000 m = 1 ¥) appears in the left margin."

Quoted from: Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) by Amy Reigle Newland, #14, p. 57. This is accompanied by a full-color half-page illustration

Condition: Margins as shown, great color, not backed, small tear at bottom center, some pinholes on left border.

Date: 1876

Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō

https://woodblockprints.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/1377