Background
Konoshita kage hazama gassen (Konoshita and divine intervention: A loophole in battle: 木下蔭狭間合戦) was one of the Ishikawa Goemon mono (Plays about Ishikawa Goemon 石川五右衛門物), the legendary fugitive outlaw. The historical Goemon was a masterless samurai (rônin: 浪人) during the reign of the shôgun Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At age sixteen he murdered three men while attempting to steal from his master. After his escape, he lived as a bandit for the next two decades until, in 1594, he was captured during a failed attempt to kill Hideyoshi. Goemon met a grisly end by being boiled in oil. The theatrical adaptations of this tale often transformed Goemon into a hero — fearless, elusive, and endowed with magical powers. The first staging of Goemon's exploits occurred in the 1680s..
Design
Collaborative works (gassaku 合作) comprise paintings, drawings and prints on the same theme in a shared pictorial space by two or more artists of comparable status. In such cases, like our Shibakuni / Yoshikuni diptych, various actor portrayals in Kamigata polyptychs were designed by two or more artists, one to a sheet, forming single compositions. Far less common are single sheets with portraits by two or more print designers
The strong pink shading inside the cone of light on the right sheet is unusually prominent. Other impressions show only a hint of pink, or none at all. The cone of light emitted by the lamp is a convention found in ukiyo-e both in Osaka and Edo. Sometimes, artists or their printers darkened colors just beyond the illumination by overprinting with gray (HKE101). Our diptych, however, does not have that effect.
This impression is early and the colors are very good.
References: WAS-IV, no. 315; SDK, p. 193, no. 408; Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
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