Ichimura Uzaemon XIII as the Firefighter Sakichi (Tobi Sakichi)

The sheet was published on the occasion of the performance of the drama Hachiman matsuri yomiya no nigiwai on the 8th month of the lunar year 1860. It bears the censor’s stamp aratame (revised) and the Monkey dating stamp. Besides the description of the acting part, the red-blue-white cartouche at top left bears the term “magnificent festival” (gosairei) in reference to the early autumn festival in the shrine of the god Hachiman. The tattooed firefighter Sakichi is one of the male protagonists in this story about Komurasaki and Shirai Gonpachi. The figure on the dark blue background is one of the finest examples of Kunisada’s figural art in its later, advanced phase. (See Helena Honcoopová, Kunisada, Praha 2005, p. 143)