Nishikido-kassen

Kimpira-joruri was very popular in middle 17th century which described recklessly brave adventures of fictitious sons of retainers called Shitenno (the big four) with a focus on the son of Sakata Kintoki who was famous for his own folk tales as Kintaro. When it comes to Nishikido kassen, before this material showed here, which was published in Manji 3, there also exist important printed copies of the same content dated Joo 4 (1655), which shows the upper limit of the appearance of kimpira joruri in a broad sense in Edo. The photo showed here is the illustration part which was pasted into Amata shigumi-cho in the collection of the Theatre Museum. The bold and unconstrained painting style is also the characteristic of kimpira joruri playbooks.