Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty (late 1790s): Art, History and Details

Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty (late 1790s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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 daughter’s hair. An itinerant priest, wearing a deep-brimmed basket hat, reads to them from the gate.

Object facts

• Title: Chushingura: Act IX of The Storehouse of Loyalty
• Date: late 1790s
• Creator attribution: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.6 x 26.1 cm (14 7/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1921.357

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• 編集赤穂市教育委員会市史編さん室., and henshū Akō-shi Kyōiku Iinkai Shishi Hensanshitsu. 忠臣蔵. 第7卷. Edited by 赤穂市教育委員会. and Akō-shi Kyōiku Iinkai Shishi Hensanshitsu. Hyōgo-ken Akō-shi: 兵庫県赤穂市, 2014.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.