The Actor Arashi Rikaku II as Isogai Tōsuke, from the series Lives of Men who Carried Out Revenge for Loyalty or Filial Piety
- Date:
- 1848
- Medium:
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper; vertical chūban
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
This 1848 Metropolitan Museum of Art vertical [chuban](/glossary/chuban) print by Hasegawa Sadanobu I depicts Arashi Rikaku II as Isogai Tosuke in a print belonging to the series Lives of Men who Carried Out Revenge for Loyalty or Filial Piety — a moralizing series title that allowed Osaka designers to circulate actor portraits in the years immediately after the Tempo Reforms had nominally restricted such publication. The series-framing as biographies of historical revenge avengers provided a cover for what audiences recognized as straightforward actor portraits, and the format demonstrates the institutional sophistication that Osaka publishers brought to navigating Tokugawa-era censorship. The vertical chuban format places this print within the standard Osaka size and style of late-1840s kamigata-e, where Sadanobu, Konishi Hirosada, and their contemporaries produced thousands of designs in the same compact format. Accessioned in 2011 as part of the Charles A. Greenfield bequest of Osaka prints (2011.148), the work expands the Met's documentation of Sadanobu's mature actor portraiture.
Late 1830s or early 1840s
Color woodblock print
1836-1870
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
1836-1870
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
1867 (Meiji 1)
Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
The Actor Arashi Rikaku II as Isogai Tōsuke, from the series Lives of Men who Carried Out Revenge for Loyalty or Filial Piety was created by Hasegawa Sadanobu I (長谷川貞信) in 1848.
The Actor Arashi Rikaku II as Isogai Tōsuke, from the series Lives of Men who Carried Out Revenge for Loyalty or Filial Piety depicts landscapes.