Daring Moves: Kabuki Actor Prints

GALLERY 21 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 17

Torii Kiyomasu I (active 1697–1722) Kintoki and the Bear Japan, Edo period, c. 1697–1704 Color woodblock print 55.2 x 32.1 cm Gift of James A. Michener, 1975 HAA 16,576

The Japanese theater known as Kabuki first emerged in the early seventeenth century, at the beginning of the Edo period. Founded by a former Shinto shrine maiden named Okuni on the banks of the Kamo River in Kyoto, and initially performed only by women (with scandalous results), under official pressure it quickly transformed into a theatrical form presented only by young men, and then into one performed only by adult males. It has remained in this form up to the present. By the late seventeenth century, Kabuki had matured into one of the most popular dramatic forms in Japan, with major stages in Edo (the modern Tokyo), Kyoto, and Osaka. Each venue had its own styles of performance, with the Edo stage dominating the arena.

With the emergence of woodblock prints depicting images of the “floating world” (ukiyo-e) in the early eighteenth century, images of popular actors (including the onnagata, or female impersonators) became popular. Today thousands of prints depicting famous kabuki
actors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries survive. The Academy, home to the third largest ukiyo-e print collection in America, has enormous holdings of such images, from which this exhibition is drawn.

The earliest prints included here are works by Torii Kiyomasu I, one of the earliest masters of the ukiyo-e genre. Active in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Kiyomasu excelled at boldly designed prints that utilized areas of color applied by hand with stencils. His print entitled Kintoki and the Bear is a masterpiece of early ukiyo-e, and was formerly in the collection of the great French collector Henri Vever (1854 –1942), whose red oval seal appears at the lower right corner.

The development of multi-block color printing in the 1760s gave birth to a new level of sophistication in Japanese woodblock prints. Prints of Kabuki actors in full makeup on stage by Ippitsusai Buncho, Katsukawa Shunsho (Hokusai’s teacher) and his followers Shunko and Shun‘ei, Torii Kiyonaga, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kunimasa, and Utagawa Kunisada dominate the exhibition. A rare print by Katsukawa Shunko depicts the brilliant actor Ichikawa Danjuro in his dressing room with an attendant. The actor, holding a pipe, sits on the floor in front of a mirror is a relaxed backstage pose, while his trunk of costumes appears in the background, surmounted by wig and a sword.

Two rare prints by Toshesai Sharaku (active 1794–95) are included. Sharaku was one of the most mysterious artists in the history of Japanese art. In a period of less than one year he designed over 150 woodblock prints depicting Kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers,
after which he disappeared completely from the artistic scene. Almost nothing is known about his life, although one source states that he was a No theater actor whose original name was Saito Jurobei. His prints are exceptional for their bold designs and the penetrating psychological characterizations of the actors depicted. The print illustrated here depicts the actor Sawamura Sojuro III, known for his romantic parts in both historical and contemporary dramas. The play in which he is shown was a variation of the Soga revenge drama, in which two brothers avenge their father’s forced suicide. The actor is shown holding a fan decorated with stylized swirls of water, and has on his face an expression of silent surprise, a type of characterization at which Sharaku excelled.

This exhibition also includes prints depicting the play entitled Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), another classic samurai revenge drama. Originally written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) for the bunraku puppet stage, this play is still a Kabuki favorite today.