Potted Violets: Jiraiya (Tsubo sumire, Jiraiya), from the series "Contemporary Parodies of the Thirty-six Selected Flowers (Tosei mitate sanjurokkasen)"

"Potted Violets: Jiraiya (Tsubo sumire, Jiraiya)" is an oban-format color woodblock print from 1862, part of Utagawa Kunisada's series "Contemporary Parodies of the Thirty-six Selected Flowers (Tosei mitate sanjurokkasen)," and held in the Art Institute of Chicago. The series is a classic example of Kunisada's mitate-e practice, in which contemporary kabuki actors in role are paired with classical motifs, here the Thirty-six Selected Flowers, a poetic catalog of seasonal blooms. Each sheet sets a flower against an actor in a kabuki role whose name, character, or visual associations rhyme or pun with the flower. In this case the flower is the violet (sumire) in a pot (tsubo), and the role is Jiraiya, the toad-riding hero of the long-running kabuki and gokan adventure cycle "Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari." Jiraiya was one of the most popular bravura male roles of late-Edo theater, and the violet pairing suggests a witty visual or literary linkage. The 1862 dating places the print in the very late phase of Kunisada's career, signed as Toyokuni III, when his palette had absorbed the new aniline reds and his compositions had moved toward bolder, more saturated theatricality. The Art Institute of Chicago's example preserves the rich color and detailed figure work characteristic of the series, including the actor's elaborate costume and the carefully observed potted plant set into the design as a poetic emblem.