Hanayori Dumplings (Hanayori dango)

Artist Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信 (Japanese, 1686–1764)

Dateabout 1718

MediumWoodblock print; ink on paper; sumizuri-e

Dimensions26.6 x 35.2 cm (10 1/2 x 13 7/8 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection

Terms

Object number1901.59.2228

DescriptionHorizontal oban (oban yoko-e)
Label TextTwo men seated at a wayside refreshment stand beside a blossoming cherry tree are eating hanayori, the cheaper sort of rice dumplings called dango. The waitress who has served the men and is seated by the kamado, (furnace) heating water to make tea for them, has upon her kimono the folded love-letter crest or mon which designates her as Yao-ya Oshichi (the Greengrocer's daughter). More specifically it is the mon of the actor Arashi Kiyosaburo I (d. 1713)-the first actor to impersonate the role of Oshichi. He performed the role in Osaka in 1706 and then, to great acclaim, at the Nakamura Theatre in Edo at the New Year 1708 and in the third month and autumn of 1709. Later the young actor Sanjo Kantaro II revived the role of Oshichi in the play Nana-kusa fukuju Soga at the Ichimura Theater at the New Year, 1718, in order to commemorate the seventh death anniversary of Arashi Kiyosaburo (who died in 1713). The fashion thus set by Kantaro has been followed by all actors who have played the role since his day.

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