Yohei in The Oil-Hell Murder from Woodblock Print Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu, 1922-1925
by Yamaguchi Sōhei
IHL Cat. #48
About This Print
Yohei, a 23 year old debt-ridden oil merchant, draws his dagger to kill Okichi the wife the oil merchant Teshimaya Shichizaemon and take the money she's removed from a safe, in the third act of the The Oil-hell Murder, first performed in August 1721 on the bunraku stage.
One of 18 prints in the set of prints titled Woodblock Print Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu published from 1922 to c. 1925 as part of the celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1623-1724), perhaps the greatest dramatist in the history of the Japanese theater. Each design illustrates a scene or character from one of Chikamatsu’s famous works which were compiled into 16 volumes by Chikamatsu researcher Kitani Hōgin 木谷蓬吟 (1877-1950). The prints were inserted into the volume containing the story they illustrated and were also separately sold.
