Title : Onoe Kikugorö as a Sasara Dancer (Yoshino)

Artist : Okumura Masanobu

Date : late 1740s

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : The Hiraki impression of this print has been dated 1/1743 by identifying Kikugorö's role as Yoshino in the Ichimura-za production of Haru wa Akebono Soga. There seems to be no corroboration of this performance in the theatrical records, however, and the claim ""inventor of pillar prints"" in the signature suggests an unidentified role in a spring play late in the 1740s or early in the 1750s. The sarara was a notched stick which was rubbed with a length of bamboo as an accompaniment for dancing. The poem, ""kazaridake sasara no oto ni Kikugorö,"" is a simple list of three spring-like subjects: potted pines, the note of the sasara, the actor Kikugorö. (Howard A. Link, primitive Ukiyo-e from the James A. Michener Collection in the HAA, 1980)

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