Chunagon Asatada / Mitate sanjurokkasen no uchi

Chūnagon Asatada, from the series Mitate sanjūrokkasen no uchi (Selections from the Parodied Thirty-Six Immortal Poets), is an Utagawa Kunisada yakusha-e mitate print that pairs a contemporary kabuki actor with the Heian-period poet Fujiwara no Asatada (910-966), one of the canonical Sanjūrokkasen. The Sanjūrokkasen — the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, a list compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō in the eleventh century — provided Edo ukiyo-e designers with a ready-made structure for series. By substituting current stage stars for the classical poets, Kunisada offered Edo townspeople a refined parody (mitate) that flattered their literacy in both classical waka and the kabuki repertoire. The figure is shown in costume from a specific role, with cartouches identifying actor, role, and the poet being alluded to, often accompanied by Asatada's famous love poem from the Shūi Wakashū. Kunisada was the most prolific designer of his era and held the title Toyokuni III in his later career; mitate sanjūrokkasen series were a recurring vehicle for his theatrical work because they allowed continuous reissue under a stable conceptual umbrella. The British Museum holds this impression (AN00429947). The print represents the deep cultural integration of Heian poetry and Edo theater that distinguished mid-nineteenth-century ukiyo-e from the more straightforwardly commercial actor portraits of the previous generation.