Fuwa Banzaemon (The Unbreakable) from the series Kabuki Jūhachiban, 1916

by Torii Kiyotada VII

Preparatory Painting and Production Print

About This Print

One of the eighteen prints in Kiyotada's second series of prints picturing the eighteen plays that make up Ichikawa Danjūrō VII's "Kabuki Jūhachiban" (The Kabuki Eighteen). In this print we see an actor in the Danjūrō line in the role of Fuwa Banzaemon dressed in the thunder bolt pattern kimono in the play "Fuwa." The tale of the rivalry between Nagoya Sanzaburō and Fuwa Banzaemon for the love of Katsuragi, a courtesan of the Shimabara quarter in Kyoto (as told in the "Nagoya Sanzaburō monogatari"), is one of the oldest themes in popular theater in the Edo period and is known to have been performed in versions for the puppet theater as early as the Kambun era (1661-1673).

Kiyotada's better known first series of the eighteen plays in "Kabuki Jūhachiban" was published in 1896. (See IHL.1272, IHL.0805, IHL.0991, IHL.0723, IHL.1510, IHL.0722, IHL.0724, IHL.0990, IHL.0471, IHL.0992, IHL.1255.)

The Preparatory Painting

Shown above is the preparatory watercolor painting used in the creation of the woodblock print to its right. 

Traditional woodblock printmaking was a "project" brought to fruition by a team consisting of publisher, artist, carver and printer. The publisher was the project leader who commissioned the artist to create a design which was then turned into a print by carvers and printers in the publisher's employ. The publisher marketed the print and had ownership of the "intellectual property," the carved woodblocks. 

"The artist would provide the publisher with a preparatory sketch of the design, called a 'shita-e' (preparatory picture). These sketches varied widely in their completeness or finish. Often the artist would provide only the main contours for his figures and an abbreviated suggestion for a background, whose details were filled in by advanced students or professional block copyists (called hikko). At other times the artist would develop his drawing to a high degree of finish [as in this watercolor painting]. The final preparatory drawing was then traced by the hikko onto very thin paper (typically minogami). This final block copy of the drawing was called the hanshita-e ('block design' or 'block sketch')."[1]

[1] "Viewing Japanese Prints" the website of John Fiorillo  https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/faq_making_a_print.html#:~:text=The%20Preparatory%20Drawing%3A%20The%20artist,in%20their%20completeness%20or%20finish. [accessed 4-10-24]

Painting and Print Details