Early 2024 delivery

Here’s another delivery from Japan but this time it only contained yakusha-e triptychs but some of them are really stunning! 

I’ve featured the subject of this next print before and these disreputable fellows should be familiar to you if you’ve been reading my posts. Yasu the Bat and Scarfaced Yosa appear in the popular play “Yowa Nasake Ukina no Yokogushi” (与話情浮名横櫛).

Another thing I love is “picture in picture” ukiyo-e, like these:

I’m a sucker for prints that depict aspects of the Meiji modernisation and this one shows a uniformed policeman, which only became commonplace from the mid 1870s. The play in question is “Shimoyo no Kane Jūji no Tsujiura” (霜夜鐘十字辻筮, Crossroads at Ten Bells on a Frosty Night), premiered at the Shintomi-za theatre from the 15th June 1880:

another copy is here.

and more …