Wrapper (fukuro) for the surimo Marking the Accession to the Name of Ichikawa Danjuro IX and the Reestablishment of the Kawarasaki Theater

The original envelope or fukuro further contextualizes the print it once contained. The front combines the crests of the Danjürö line—three concentric squares—and of the newly reestablished theater—paired cranes in lozenge form. The back glosses the twelve objects on the print with the corresponding play. The envelope also spells out the circumstances under which the print was presented. The statement signed by the actor clearly states that the print was given to the "refined people" who came to view the exhibition at the theater. In retrospect, the print and the tremendous efforts of Danjürö to reestablish the Kawarasaki Theater were not entirely successful. Despite his heroic efforts, including key parts in three consecutive plays in the fall of the first season, he was not able to bring the theater into profitability. Only ten months after the ceremony that this envelope and print commemorate, he fled Tokyo in order to escape from his many creditors. The theater fell into other hands and Danjürö and his theater company spent the next two years touring in the remote parts of the country before he had enough resources to go back to Tokyo and make a successful comeback. This print and its envelope are also an instructive example of the occasional appearance of Shijö-style surimono outside the usual centers of patronage of Osaka and Kyoto.