Tenjiku Tokubei, Chichu no renge (Tenjiku Tokubei, Lotus) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))

Tenjiku Tokubei, Chichu no renge (Tenjiku Tokubei, Lotus) is from Utagawa Kunisada's Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers / Immortals of Poetry), a mitate series pairing Edo kabuki stars with one of the thirty-six classical poetic immortals and with a flower that condenses the role's character. Tenjiku Tokubei is the protagonist of plays based loosely on the real seventeenth-century traveller of that name, transformed by kabuki into a sorcerer who summons giant toads through magic learned in India ('Tenjiku') - hence his association with the lotus (renge), the Buddhist emblem of transformation. Kunisada, the dominant designer of yakusha-e in nineteenth-century Edo, presents the figure with the intense expression, dynamic costume, and patterned background that the role demands. The flower cartouche carrying the lotus and the title cartouche identify the series; the publisher's seal and actor name in the upper margin would tie the sheet to a specific production. The impression is preserved at the British Museum and indexed on ukiyo-e.org. Together the sheet exemplifies Kunisada's confident handling of supernatural kabuki roles within the mitate framework. Source: ukiyo-e.org / British Museum (https://ukiyo-e.org/image/bm/AN00431628_001_l).