Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Yakusha-e: Kabuki Prints, a Continuing Tradition

(from 29th Nov 2011 until 4th Mar 2012)

Discover the brightly coloured woodblock prints of actors from Japanese popular theatre.

Detail of The actor Nakamura Shikan IV as the fisherman Fukashichi, Tōkyō, 1869 (Museum No: EA1971.2
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The actor Ichimura Kakitsu IV in the female role of Ikazuchi no Otsuru

  • Description

    Women were banned from acting in the kabuki theatre and so female roles were taken by male actors who specialized as female impersonators (onnagata). Ichimura Kakitsu IV was one of the most popular kabuki actors of the late nineteenth century. Here he is depicted as the fashionable heroine Otsuru, shown with a towel draped around her shoulders. It is interesting to note that the actor did not actually play this role in 1861, and that the artist has signed the print ‘Designed by Toyokuni, according to my own taste’ (Konomi ni makasete Toyokuni ga). Perhaps the artist (or his publisher) is fantasizing about a favourite actor in a favourite role here.

  • Details

    Series
    Five Fashionable Women
    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of creation)
    AsiaJapanHonshūKantōTōkyō prefecture Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Date
    designed 1861
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Kunisada (1823-1880) (designer)
    Horiyasu Kokutō (active c. 1861) (block cutter)
    Associated people
    Tsujioka Bunsuke (active c. 1814 - 1896) (publisher)
    Ichimura Kakitsu IV (1844 - 1903) (subject)
    Material and technique
    Nishiki-e, woodblock print with ink and colour
    Dimensions
    mount 55.5 x 40.2 cm (height x width)
    sheet 36.4 x 25.3 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Christ Church College, University of Oxford, 1983.
    Accession no.
    EA1983.53

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

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Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

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