Description
The night sky provides a striking black backdrop for falling snow in this violent scene from the play The Ever-Blooming Potted Tree. Here, the old hag Karashi Baba is about to murder the defenseless Shirotae. This play, with its winter setting, was a popular Kabuki season opener performed in December.
Provenance
Frederic May (1851–1918) Washington, D.C.; sold, American Art Galleries, New York, May 6–10, 1918, to Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858–1937), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.
Nakamura Utaemon I as Karashi Baba and Yoshizawa Sakinosuke III as Shirotae
About 1769
Accession Number
21985
Medium
Color woodblock print; hosoban
Dimensions
30.6 × 14.6 cm (12 3/16 × 5 3/4 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Credit Line
Clarence Buckingham Collection
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