Kabuki - Hirakana Seisui Ki

Konishi Hirosada's 1851 chuban print Kabuki - Hirakana Seisui Ki in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection captures a scene from the historical kabuki cycle Hirakana Seisuiki (A Phonetic Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Heike and Genji), based on the late twelfth-century Genpei War between the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) clans. Hirakana Seisuiki was one of the most frequently performed jidaimono plays in late-Edo and early-Meiji kabuki, and Osaka theaters mounted regular productions throughout Hirosada's career. The print likely depicts a leading Osaka kabuki actor in costume for one of the play's signature roles — perhaps the boatman Matsuemon, a major warrior such as Higuchi no Jiro, or one of the female roles like Oyoshi. Hirosada's chuban okubi-e format isolates the actor in close focus, prioritizing the visual identification of the performance over narrative scene-setting. The 1851 dating places this V&A holding within Hirosada's most prolific period.