Umegawa (Umegawa from the play Meido no hikyaku)

Created in 1923 as a color woodblock print in oban format, this portrait of Umegawa returns to the heroine of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's "Meido no Hikyaku" (The Courier for Hell). Where Tsunetomi's other print of this subject focuses on Umekawa within the narrative context of the play, this version isolates the character as a standalone portrait, identified simply by her name. Umegawa was a courtesan of the Shinmachi quarter in Osaka, a location central to Tsunetomi's artistic world. The 1923 date places this print in the Taisho era, a period of great productivity for shin-hanga bijin-ga artists. Tsunetomi's sympathy for Umegawa's story of love, sacrifice, and doom reflects the Osaka artistic tradition's deep engagement with Chikamatsu's sewamono (domestic dramas), which were set in the very neighborhoods the artist knew and depicted.