Matsunami Kengyo, jitsuwa Akushichi Byoei, Hikyoku no biwanohana (Matsunami Kengyo, in reality Akushichi Byoei, Flower of Loquat) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))

Matsunami Kengyo, in reality Akushichi Byoei, Hikyoku no biwanohana (Flower of Loquat) is a sheet from Utagawa Kunisada's Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers / Immortals of Poetry). The character Matsunami Kengyo - actually the disguised Akushichi Byoei of the Heike cycle - belongs to one of the great kabuki yatsushi (hidden-identity) traditions in which a blind biwa-playing kengyo is revealed as a vengeful warrior. The accompanying flower of the loquat (biwanohana), with its punning relationship to the biwa lute Byoei would have played, supplies an unusually witty floral emblem and exemplifies how Kunisada and his publishers used the mitate framework to display literary cleverness alongside theatrical celebrity. Kunisada, the dominant Edo ukiyo-e designer of yakusha-e in his generation, presents the figure in a strong half-length pose, the patterned costume and intense expression appropriate to a role that pivots from sightless musician to wrathful avenger. The British Museum impression catalogued through ukiyo-e.org preserves the design for study. Source: ukiyo-e.org / British Museum (https://ukiyo-e.org/image/bm/AN00431607_001_l).