Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty
1794
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1794
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty is a 1794 by Kitagawa Utamaro, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A mother kneels with a sword raised over her daughter. The room is dark but the blade gleams. Both women wear kimono with stiff folds. This scene comes from a famous Japanese play. The plot turns on a broken promise and near-tragedy. Utamaro shows raw emotion in simple shapes and lines. See how the mother’s shadow stretches across the tatami. It hints at the weight she feels. Look up Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).
Stage version: In this dramatic scene depicted in Masayoshi’s stage version (see Chushingura: Perspective Picture for the "Treasure House of Loyalty" [1985.338.9]), Tonase prepares to kill her daughter Tonami with her husband’s sword and then to commit suicide. The dire moment results from the humiliating rejection of her daughter’s marriage contract. Fortunately, her husband, Honzo, dressed as an itinerant Buddhist priest, appears just in time to stop the tragedy. Parody print: In the parody print, Utamaro turned this dramatic event into a scene of domesticity in which the mother brushes her…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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