Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: Mid-Edo. Off to the Teahouse for Kasamori Osen, Color Prints and Sumo Rankings

In 18th-century Yanaka, in mid-Edo, there was a teahouse people visited just to catch a glimpse of a working woman. She was Kasamori Osen, the star of Kagiya, a shop where people stopped for tea and a rest.

You heard the buzz and went to meet her, then enjoyed pictures of her. You went to the place where your oshi could be found, and on the days you couldn’t, you gazed at their image. A pleasure that still rings true today grew up around Edo’s shops and printed matter.

1. Off to the Teahouse to See Your Oshi: The People Who Gathered for Kasamori Osen

The mizu-jaya where Osen worked was a shop on the roadside or in temple and shrine grounds where people drank tea and rested. Think of it as something like a café today, and the scene comes into focus.

Osen’s reputation at Kagiya spread, and people who wanted to see her at least once visited the shop. The artist Suzuki Harunobu painted her many times, too. National Diet Library, “An Oshi You Can Meet: Teahouse Girls” (in Japanese)

You want to meet someone you became curious about through other people’s talk or pictures. That feeling carries over to going to events today. But Osen worked at a teahouse. Unlike a modern idol, she didn’t make a living by appearing on stage.

1. 01Reputation spreadsWord about Osen at Kagiya
2. 02Fans visitTo see her at least once
3. 03Goods appearHand towels and dolls
4. 04She leavesMarried and moved on, 1770
5. 05Pictures remainOsen as she was at the teahouse

The paintings kept her image after she left the shop.

The writer Ota Nanpo, a literary figure of the day, recorded that Osen was made into hand towels and dolls. Beyond going to see her in person, people could buy items modeled on her. National Diet Library’s introduction of the materials (in Japanese)

A hand towel could be used every day, and a doll could sit close by for admiring. Just as we keep photos or acrylic stands of our oshi in our lives today, there were things that brought her to mind on the days you didn’t go to see her.

Then in 1770, Osen vanished from the shop. She had married and moved on to a new life, so even if you went for her, you could no longer meet her at the teahouse. Yet in the pictures, Osen as she was when she worked there remained. National Diet Library, “Osen Disappears” (in Japanese)

The names of Osen and Harunobu live on in Yanaka today. At Daienji temple, which enshrines Kasamori Inari, a “Kasamori Osen monument” and a monument to “Suzuki Harunobu, founder of nishiki-e” were erected in 1919. A later era built them to remember the two; they are not records from Edo itself. Taito City official tourist information, “Monuments to Kasamori Osen and Suzuki Harunobu” (in Japanese)

2. Your Oshi in Vivid Color: Suzuki Harunobu and Nishiki-e

Harunobu, who painted Osen, was active just as the way people enjoyed pictures was changing.

In 1765, events where people exchanged e-goyomi, picture calendars with calendar information hidden in the image, led to the development of ukiyo-e printed in several layers of color. The vividly colored woodblock prints that spread from this are nishiki-e. Tokyo National Museum on Suzuki Harunobu (in Japanese) The Chiba City Museum of Art likewise takes the fad for calendar-exchange gatherings that year as the trigger for nishiki-e’s birth, and presents Harunobu as the artist who revolutionized ukiyo-e with multicolor woodblock printing. Chiba City Museum of Art, “Revolution in Edo Art: The Age of Harunobu” (in Japanese)

1. 01Nishiki-eVivid multi-color prints
2. 02Layered color blocksOne block per color
3. 031765 picture calendarsExchanged in Edo
4. 04Hidden calendar infoPuzzles in the picture

A game of hidden dates helped launch full-color printing.

A picture calendar hides its calendar information inside the artwork. Harunobu’s “Mitate Sanseki: Saigyo,” held by the Chiba City Museum of Art, is a picture calendar from 1765. Characters showing that year’s long and short months are tucked into the reeds by the water and the pattern of a woman’s sash. The pleasure of decoding the calendar and the pleasure of looking at the picture overlapped in a single sheet. Chiba City Museum of Art collection, “Mitate Sanseki: Saigyo” (in Japanese)

Layering a block for each color lets a print capture the colors and patterns of a kimono and even the background. When you gaze at a favorite’s image, color gives you more to enjoy.

Choosing a photo of your oshi isn’t a matter of grabbing any one that shows their face. You like that costume. This angle is good. You want to keep this expression. The same pleasure of choosing can be laid over looking at nishiki-e.

Harunobu’s works include pictures on themes from waka poetry and stories, and pictures of the popular figures of his day. Both classical characters and the town favorites of the time were his subjects. Tokyo National Museum’s list of works (in Japanese)

3. Keep the Stage Oshi Close, Too: Katsukawa Shunsho’s Actor Prints

Actors who shone on stage were also an important subject for ukiyo-e. Katsukawa Shunsho excelled at yakusha-e, pictures of actors. The Tokyo National Museum presented a five-sheet actor print, a work in which several sheets of paper are placed side by side to be enjoyed as one large scene. Tokyo National Museum exhibition explainer on actor prints (in Japanese)

Shunsho and the Katsukawa school are said to have perfected nigao actor portraits, drawing each actor’s features differently so that you could tell who it was at a glance. With tsuzuki-e, where several narrow-format sheets are joined, they could depict the whole stage, while audiences could also buy just the single sheet showing their favorite (hiiki) actor. Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “Katsukawa School Actor Prints” (in Japanese)

One sheet

A single actor

• Your favorite alone
• Buy only the sheet you like

Several sheets

Tsuzuki-e

• Whole stage on connected sheets
• Like a group photo of the cast

Each actor was drawn so that you could tell who it was by looking.

Some days you want to gaze at your oshi alone, and other days you want to see them standing with their co-stars. Pictures with several actors come closest to a cast group photo today. Unlike a photographic record, though, they showed the figure as the artist drew it, and that was part of the fun.

Even after you’d left the theater, opening an actor print let you look at your oshi’s costume and pose. The pictures made a pleasure that didn’t end on the day of the performance.

4. Checking Your Wrestler’s Name and Rank on the Banzuke

Edo’s fever didn’t gather only around theaters and teahouses. Sumo had audiences with favorite wrestlers, too.

In the late 18th century, famed wrestlers such as Tanikaze and Onogawa were active, and sumo’s popularity in Edo rose. Large temporary huts for performances were built in temple and shrine grounds, and spectators enjoyed the bouts there. Tokyo Metropolitan Library, “The Birth of Kanjin Ozumo” (in Japanese) The Japan Sumo Association also explains that in mid-Edo, sumo came to be held on a regular basis, and that its popularity rose rapidly with the exploits of Tanikaze, Onogawa and Raiden. Sumo became a popular entertainment alongside kabuki. Japan Sumo Association, “History of Sumo” (in Japanese)

A clue to who was competing was the banzuke, a list of names and ranks that came to be printed from woodblocks and distributed in the Edo period. Tokyo Metropolitan Library’s explainer on sumo banzuke (in Japanese)

You look for your favorite wrestler’s name and check what rank he holds. It’s like following the stats of a player you support in sports today. A banzuke isn’t a popularity vote on the spot; it shows the wrestlers’ ranks. The standard for lining people up was different from that of the actor critique books of the theater.

In mid-Edo, shops and printed matter supported pleasures that connect to today’s events, merchandise and player information: seeing a favorite at a teahouse, gazing at actor prints, checking wrestlers’ ranks on the banzuke.

1. 1765Picture-calendar crazeLeads to nishiki-e
2. 1770Osen leaves the teahouseMarried and moved on
3. Late 1700sTanikaze and OnogawaSumo's popularity rises
4. 1919Monuments in YanakaBuilt to remember Osen and Harunobu

Shops and printed sheets carried the pleasure of following someone.

Timeline of Oshi-Katsu in Mid-Edo

Meet your oshi at a teahouse, take their image home in nishiki-e, follow their success on the banzuke. The events that supported these pleasures overlap in the 18th century.

1. 1703The Takemotoza premieres "Sonezaki Shinju," and the Toyotakeza is foundedTheater
2. 1714The Ejima-Ikushima incident leaves the official theaters as the three Edo theatersTheater
3. 1721The second Ichikawa Danjuro's pay reaches 1,000 ryo a yearIdols
4. 1734The "three-person operation" is devised for ningyo joruri puppet theaterTheater
5. 1747The first Tokiwazu Mojitayu founds Tokiwazu-bushiMusic
6. 1748"Kanadehon Chushingura" premieres at the TakemotozaTheater
7. 1757Vertical single-sheet sumo rankings begin to be printedSumo
8. 1764Kasamori Osen appears at the Kagiya teahouse in YanakaIdols
9. 1765Multicolor nishiki-e prints are bornMedia
10. 1770Katsukawa Shunsho and others publish "Ehon Butai Ogi"Media
11. 1772The Takemotoza closes, and ningyo joruri goes into declineTheater
12. 1773Tsutaya Juzaburo opens Kosho-do at the Yoshiwara Great GateBusiness
13. 1782Onogawa Kisaburo ends Tanikaze's 63-win streakSumo
14. 1789Tanikaze Kajinosuke and Onogawa receive the yokozuna licenseSumo
15. 1794Toshusai Sharaku debuts with 28 large-format actor printsMedia
16. 1798The first yose is held on the grounds of Shitaya Shrine in EdoPerforming arts

Performing Arts and Trend Words of Mid-Edo

Hiiki, for backing a favorite actor, and renju, for groups of friends who gather. Both words describe the relationship between an oshi and the people who love the same thing.

Hiiki (patronage)

The act, and the position, of supporting a favorite actor or performer financially and emotionally

Renchu (fan circles)

Groups of friends who backed a particular actor. They functioned much like modern fan clubs

Kurai-zuke (rank grading)

A scoring system in actor critique books that graded performance. It was updated every year

Mitate banzuke (parody rankings)

A single-sheet print that borrows the form of sumo rankings to rank all kinds of things, split into east and west

Kuraizuke is a grading that evaluated actors’ art, and mitate banzuke are printed sheets that imitated sumo banzuke to rank all sorts of things.

In the next installment, Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: Late Edo, we take up clothing patterns named after actors and pictures of the dressing rooms.

References

• National Diet Library, “An Oshi You Can Meet: Teahouse Girls” (in Japanese)
• Tokyo National Museum, “Ukiyo-e and Costume: Edo (Ukiyo-e)” (in Japanese)
• Tokyo National Museum, actor prints by Katsukawa Shunsho and others (in Japanese)
• Tokyo Metropolitan Library, “The Birth of Kanjin Ozumo” (in Japanese)
• Tokyo Metropolitan Library, explainer on sumo banzuke (in Japanese)
• Chiba City Museum of Art, “Revolution in Edo Art: The Age of Harunobu” (in Japanese)
• Chiba City Museum of Art collection, “Mitate Sanseki: Saigyo” (in Japanese)
• Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “2026 AVF Kabuki and Media,” Katsukawa School Actor Prints (in Japanese)
• Taito City official tourist information, “Monuments to Kasamori Osen and Suzuki Harunobu” (in Japanese)
• Japan Sumo Association, “History of Sumo” (in Japanese)