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Torii Kiyonobu II
The Actor Segawa Kikunojō I as the Fox Spirit Kuzu-no-ha
1737, 3rd month

Signed: Torii Kiyonobu hitsu; Publisher: hanmoto Sakai-machi Nakajimaya and logo; hosoban, 32.1 x 15.2 cm; urushi-e with metallic pigments

The main role in the play O-uchi kagami Shinoda-zuma, which premiered in 1737, was played by the famous onnagata Segawa Kikunojō I. According to a legend, Abe no Yasuna (10th c.) saved a fox from hunters and it soon transformed itself into a beautiful woman, married him, bore him a son and disappeared again. She left him the poem: “If you love me / come and search for me / in the woods of Shinoda in Izumi / there you will find an arrowroot leaf.”

Geyger, inv.no.16383 (KG p.98 / KGE p.104)

This actor was one of the most important onnagata performers of his time. Originally he came from the stage of the Dôtombori district in Ôsaka. From 1712 he played female figures, but did not receive any special attention until his thirtieth year. He even turned his back on the stage for a while, and adopted a middle-class profession. But in 1720 he returned to the theatre. For ten years he played as a zamoto at various Kamigata theatres. In 1730 he came to Tôkyô (Edo); from 1737-1741 he played outside the capital. Kikunojô also lived as a woman in his private life. In a work fundamental to the school of Kabuki, he wrote down his thoughts on playing women. It bears the title onnagata hidden (“The secrets of onnagata”). This work also contains his thoughts on the stage dance (shosagoto), giving guidelines for dance musicals such as Muken-no-kane or Shakkyô Dôjôji, on the basis of which a form was adopted that is still valid today.

Our sheet was produced on the occasion of his farewell performance on leaving Edo. He was then over forty-five years old. The dance known as the Shinoda Dance must have received special acclaim from his contemporaries, for Kiyonobu II created at least three different versions at three different publishing houses.

This actor was one of the most important onnagata performers of his time. Originally he came from the stage of the Dôtombori district in Ôsaka. From 1712 he played female figures, but did not receive any special attention until his thirtieth year. He even turned his back on the stage for a while, and adopted a middle-class profession. But in 1720 he returned to the theatre. For ten years he played as a zamoto at various Kamigata theatres. In 1730 he came to Tôkyô (Edo); from 1737-1741 he played outside the capital. Kikunojô also lived as a woman in his private life. In a work fundamental to the school of Kabuki, he wrote down his thoughts on playing women. It bears the title onnagata hidden (“The secrets of onnagata”). This work also contains his thoughts on the stage dance (shosagoto), giving guidelines for dance musicals such as Muken-no-kane or Shakkyô Dôjôji, on the basis of which a form was adopted that is still valid today.

Our sheet was produced on the occasion of his farewell performance on leaving Edo. He was then over forty-five years old. The dance known as the Shinoda Dance must have received special acclaim from his contemporaries, for Kiyonobu II created at least three different versions at three different publishing houses.

The woodblock print published here is the only case where Kikunojô’s uchikake bears leaves of the kuzu plant. The robe is decorated with aoi leaves and plum blossoms in tortoise-shell pattern outlines. Both motifs, the aoi leaves and plums, also adorn Kikunojô’s robes in other prints. They seem to be connected more with his person than with the role depicted here.

Kuzu-no-ha (arrowroot leaf) is one of the best known legends of the ancient fox superstitions in East Asia, originating in China. Pu Songling has recorded many of these beliefs in his work “Strange Stories from the Studio of a Chinese Scholar” (12th c.). In Japan this kind of belief in foxes seems to have been imported in the 10th c. There, a kind of fox belief is to be found in which the fox is also associated with rice cultivation.

The legend of Kuzu-no-ha is as follows: the courtier Abe-no-Yasuna (10th c.) was going for a walk one day in the park of the Inari shrine and was reciting poetry, when a vixen sought his protection from the hunters who were chasing her. He hid the fox under his robe and thus saved her life.

Shortly afterwards, he met a beautiful young woman and married her. She bore him a son, but suddenly, after three years, she disappeared, leaving behind a poem on the house wall:
Koishikuba
If you love me

Tazunekite miyo
come and look for me

Izumi naru
in the Forest of Shinoda in Izumi

Shinoda no mori no
and you will find

Urami Kuzu no ha.
an arrowroot leaf.

In a dream she appears to her husband and reveals to him that she is really the vixen whose life he saved. The son which she bore to Abe-no-Yasuna, Abe-no-Seimei (died 1005), became a gifted astrologer with magical powers at the court of the Emperor Toba.