Cleveland Museum of Art

Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty

Kitagawa Utamaro

Date: late 1790s
Medium: color woodblock print
Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Department: Japanese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Stage version: In this dramatic scene depicted in Masayoshi’s stage version (see Chushingura: Perspective Picture for the "Treasure House of Loyalty" [1985.338.9]), Tonase prepares to kill her daughter Tonami with her husband’s sword and then to commit suicide. The dire moment results from the humiliating rejection of her daughter’s marriage contract. Fortunately, her husband, Honzo, dressed as an itinerant Buddhist priest, appears just in time to stop the tragedy. Parody print: In the parody print, Utamaro turned this dramatic event into a scene of domesticity in which the mother brushes her daughter’s hair. An itinerant priest, wearing a deep-brimmed basket hat, reads to them from the gate.

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