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The Actor Segawa Kikunojō III as Osome, the Oil Merchant’s Daughter in the play Hayariuta Hiyoku Sammon, Kiri Theater

Artist/Maker (Japanese, 1762–1819)
Date1796
MediumColor woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
DimensionsVertical ōban; overall: 15 × 10 3/16 in. (38.1 × 25.8 cm)
Credit LineMary A. Ainsworth Bequest
Object number1950.305
Status
Not on view
More Information
The actor Segawa Kikunojō III (1751–1810) appears here as Osome in the 1796 performance of Hayari uta hiyoku sanmon. The play references a famous Love Suicide (shinjū 心中), a popular genre in Edo period theater in which personal feelings often were pitted against duty. The story of Osome and Hisamatsu was based on actual events that occurred in 1710. She was the daughter of the proprietor of the Aburaya oil shop. Pledged to marry another but in love with Hisamatsu, an apprentice at the shop, the couple suffered many tribulations, and finally committed suicide rather than be separated.
Exhibition History
Japanese Print Exhibition
  • Carleton College Art Department (April 21, 1965 - May 9, 1965 )
Japanese Prints from the Ainsworth Collection, Oberlin College
  • Mansfield Fine Arts Guild, Mansfield, OH (November 7, 1965 - November 28, 1965 )
Masterpieces of Japanese Prints from the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (December 11, 1984 - January 27, 1985 )
Japanese Prints from the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 20, 1986 - July 20, 1986 )
A Life in Prints: Mary A. Ainsworth and the Floating World
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 3, 2015 - June 7, 2015 )
Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection
  • Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan (April 13, 2019 - May 25, 2019 )
  • Shizuoka City Museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan (June 8, 2019 - July 28, 2019 )
  • Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan (August 10, 2019 - September 29, 2019 )
Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 14, 2020 - December 6, 2020 )
Collections
  • Asian