Onoe Matsusuke I as Ebisu, from The Stand-In Seven Gods of Good Fortune

見立七福神の内「蛭子屋」初代尾上菊五郎

c. 1780

Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章

(Japanese, 1726–1792)

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Medium

color woodblock print

Measurements

Sheet: 31.5 x 14 cm (12 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift from J. H. Wade 1921.1280

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Location

Not on view

Description

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.