Posted by CPS (84.177.36.89) on May 24, 2011 at 10:25:44:
In Reply to: Re: Foxes Frontispiece posted by Irwin on May 24, 2011 at 00:57:48:
Hi Irwin,
Please find below the story given in Inge Klompmakers book to the Kuniyoshi print:
Following a turn of bad luck, Henmeisanro Sekishu is forced to sell grass for a living. As he had at one point saved the prison chief Byokansaku Yoyu from a street robber, he is invited to spend a couple of days as Yoyu's guest. During his stay Sekishu notices that Yoyu's wife is having an affair with the monk Haijokai who always drops by for an amorous rendezvous when Yoyu is absent. One night Sekishu awaits him outside Yoyu's house and upon the priest's arrival stabs him several times with his knife, killing him. Sekishu and Yoyu thereafter set out for Ryosanpaku....
Kuniyoshi portrays Sekishu at the moment he has caught the secret lover of Yoyu's wife. He restrains him with his right foot and carries a drum which belongs to another priest who assisted Haijokai by beating his drum every morning as a signal when it was safe to leave Yoyu's house. Sekishu kills this priest first, dons his clothes and then lay in wait for Haijokai.
Text taken from Klompmakers, Inge,'Of brigands and bravery: Kuniyoshi's heroes of the Suikoden', Hotei Publishing , Leiden, 1998, page 94
I'm sure the scene on your print is an kabuki adoption from this story - possibly as a parody (mitate):
from right to left: Yoyu, Yoyu's wife, Sekishu, and the monk Haijokai in the final act of the play.
CPS