Background
Keisei hanabusa zôshi (Courtesan: A storybook blossom: けいせい英草紙 also given as けいせい英双紙) has a plot that is unknown to us. This particular production was featured as a drama for the New Year in 1835.
Design
Printmakers were restrained by the shogunate in their choice of print formats, as anything larger than a ôban sheet was likely to be considered ostentatious and inappropriate to their low societal status. As a result, publishers could not, with few exceptions, safely publish works on double ôban (ôbaibon) or larger sheets for the commercial market (some privately exchanged surimono did reach such sizes). Compositions took the form of single sheets and polyptychs in ôban and smaller sizes. Still, there was some room to maneuver. As our pentaptych shows, on at least one occasion Hokuei deployed a highly unusual configuration by placing one sheet above the 3R panel. The asymmetry boldly distinguishes Hokuei's composition from innumerable all-in-a-row polyptychs common in ukiyo-e.
This scene is emblematic of Kabuki's tachimawari (lit., "standing and going around," i.e., choreographed fight scenes: 立回り). Kiritarô (5R) appears as a necromancer standing in a cloud with his hands positioned in the manner for casting spells.
The far left sheet, unlike the remaining four, has a yellow and green ground. This is the case for nearly all the impressions we have seen of this design over the years. In ukiyo-e polyptychs, differences in colorations among the sheets is a rather frequent condition.
This pentaptych is rarely available for acquisition when complete and with very good colors, as in our example.
References: IKBYS-II, no. 344; WAS-IV, no. 525; KNP-VI, vol. 6, p. 297; IKB-I, no. p. 99, no. 2-437
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