Shuntei - Parody of Act Eight of Forty-seven Ronin

Katsukawa Shuntei

This print is by Shuntei Katsukawa. It’s from a series of prints on EnoShima which is a small island. It displays a Western-style sense of perspective. In this work, two characters from a kabuki play “Kana-dehon Chushingura (The Revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin)”, Tonase and her daughter Konami are illustrated. The scene illustrated is the Act Eight “Michiyuki”, the travel scene, and they are heading to Yamashina in Kyoto from Kamakura. In this picture, the Enoshima Island was selected as a setting.

Shuntei’s  prints covered a wide spectrum of typical Ukiyo-e subjects - actors, beautiful women, warriors, battle scenes, landscapes. His landscape prints are influenced by western painting. He used Western perspective - rather unusual for Japanese ukiyo-e at the time.

Date: 1810 -1820