Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Urabe Suetake, Onoe Matsusuke I as Usui Sadamitsu, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Watanabe no Tsuna in “The Four Heavenly Kings Costumed as the Night Watch” (1781): Art, History and

Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Urabe Suetake, Onoe Matsusuke I as Usui Sadamitsu, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Watanabe no Tsuna in “The Four Heavenly Kings Costumed as the Night Watch” (1781) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Katsukawa Shunzan (Japanese, active c. 1782–98).

The work and its context

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

This triptych (a composition of three prints) shows actors portraying three of the four famed protectors of imperial regent Minamoto Yorimitsu (948?–1021). Collectively, they are known as his Shitennō (四天王), or “Four Heavenly Kings,” after the Buddhist deities who guard the four cardinal directions. The characters are indicated by the large house crests on their robes. The actor Onoe Matsusuke I’s identity is revealed by a fan with the ideograph matsu (松), or “pine,” tucked into his robe, just against his breastplate.

Object facts

• Title: Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Urabe Suetake, Onoe Matsusuke I as Usui Sadamitsu, and Nakamura Nakazo I as Watanabe no Tsuna in “The Four Heavenly Kings Costumed as the Night Watch”
• Date: 1781
• Creator attribution: Katsukawa Shunzan (Japanese, active c. 1782–98)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: triptych of color woodblock prints
• Dimensions: Overall: 31 x 14.5 cm (12 3/16 x 5 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1921.314

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.