Onoe Matsusuke I as Ebisu, from The Stand-In Seven Gods of Good Fortune (c. 1780): Art, History and Details

Onoe Matsusuke I as Ebisu, from The Stand-In Seven Gods of Good Fortune (c. 1780) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Katsukawa Shunshō (Japanese, 1726–1792).

The work and its context

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

This print is from a group in which famous Kabuki theater actors who never performed together stand in for the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. Images of the Seven Gods symbolize hope for fortune in the coming year, and the set may have been made for the New Year of 1780. Here, Onoe Matsusuke I poses beneath curtains at the entrance to a place of business. They read, “House of Ebisu.” Ebisu is the god of fishermen, which may account for the wave imagery on the actor’s inner robe.

Object facts

• Title: Onoe Matsusuke I as Ebisu, from The Stand-In Seven Gods of Good Fortune
• Date: c. 1780
• Creator attribution: Katsukawa Shunshō (Japanese, 1726–1792)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 31.5 x 14 cm (12 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1921.1280

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.