Posted by Dan (24.58.6.220) on September 29, 2004 at 01:58:21:
In Reply to: Re: Ashiyuki and Senchô (attn:- Jo posted by Peter Gallagher on September 28, 2004 at 23:18:45:
Dear Peter,
I had some trouble accessing the original message in Archive 2, so I'm not sure exactly what you wanted to know about the print. But I can tell you a few things.
The print is titled Sugao Natsu-Fuji, or "Unadorned Faces, Mt. Fuji in the Summertime". The title, which plays with a very famous book of actor portraits (off the stage) by Shunsho, is somewhat redundant. The whole idea of "Natsu-Fuji" is that the actors are depicted without cakepowder makeup, as Fuji in the summertime appears without its white snow cap. Sugao, literally "naked face" or "simple face" means the very same.
It appears as though the series is a comparison of famous actors and famous courtesans in their "off hours", when they are not made up. I think the idea is partly that they are so beautiful that they don't need makeup, though part of the titillation is seeing these cultural icons in "natural" situations. I have a print by Sencho from another series that also compares actors and courtesans (also with courtesan as main, actor in inset) so he seems to have done this a bit.
Sencho, who is listed as a pupil of Eisen, is quite close artistically to the Utagawa style, and the "Sada" in his go (pronounced "tei" here, so "Teisai") probably hinted at this unofficial lineage.
My estimate would be that the print is late 1830s, possibly early 40s, though it lacks any censor mark.
I hope this helps. If there was something in the original message that I couldn't see that you wanted to know, I'd be happy to try to help.