Utagawa KunisadaⅠSketches for "Chushingura"

A rough sketch of Utagawa Kunisada I, the representative Edo ukiyo-e artist of early 19th century. Its subject is Kanadehon Chushingura, one of the most popular kabuki plays. Kunisada, also known as Kachoro, took over his mentor Toyokuni’s activities and left his mark on the history of ukiyo-e by his outstanding yakusha-e. This material is a scroll including ten pictures based on stories from the prologue to the epilogue, and each picture was drawn in the size of large-sized nishiki-e triptych. It is a hand-drawn picture before the block was engraved, thus we can get some information about the idea before its completion. Donated by the Edo literature researcher Mimura Chikusei (1876～1953), a good friend of Shoyo, to celebrate the opening of the Theatre Museum.