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
Ichikawa Ennosuke III as the boatwoman Oenfront

© Tsuruya Kōkei

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Ichikawa Ennosuke III as the boatwoman Oen

  • Description

    This play is an example of a ‘dance piece’, or shosagoto, one of the three main categories of kabuki play. The other types are jidaimono, which feature historical plots and characters; and sewamono, or ‘domestic plays’, which generally focus on commoners in a contemporary setting.

    Handsome boatmen ferrying passengers across the Sumida River in the capital city of Edo were popular idols of the Edo period (1600-1868). The only thing they feared was thunderstorms. This humorous dance shows a comical encounter between a drunken boatman (here a boatwoman) and the Thunder Spirit, carrying his drums and dressed in an animal skin loincloth.

  • Details

    show all
    Series
    Bust Portraits XI
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    1997
    Artist/maker
    Tsuruya Kōkei (born 1946) (designer)
    Associated people
    Ichikawa Ennosuke III (born 1939) (subject)
    Material and technique
    woodblock on ganpi paper
    Dimensions
    print 38 x 23 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Philip Harris, 2010.
    Accession no.
    EA2010.49

Past Exhibition

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Location

    • currently in research collection

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