Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Soga no Gorō (1779): Art, History and Details

Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Soga no Gorō (1779) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Katsukawa Shunkō (Japanese, 1743–1812).

The work and its context

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

Some Kabuki plays centered on the legend of the Soga brothers, Gorō and Jurō, who avenge their father’s murder before coming to their own demise. The setting is near Mount Fuji, part of which appears in the background. The print is likely from a diptych (a composition of two prints). The other print would have shown the rest of the mountain and Gorō’s retainer (a person retained by another to act in a military capacity), Asahina Saburō, tugging at the same pine bough as Gorō—a twist on scenes in which Saburō pulled Gorō’s armor to try to prevent him from protecting his brother.

Object facts

• Title: Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Soga no Gorō
• Date: 1779
• Creator attribution: Katsukawa Shunkō (Japanese, 1743–1812)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 30.6 x 14 cm (12 1/16 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1920.518

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

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.