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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Katsukawa, Shunko Creator Nationality: Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese Creator Role: Artist Creator Dates/Places: Japanese; 1743-1812 Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Active Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Creator Name-CRT: Katsukawa Shunko Title: The actors Iwai Hanshiro IV (right), Ichikawa Monnosuke II (center), and Sakata Hangoro III (left) Title Type: preferred View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1786 Creation End Date: 1786 Creation Date: Performed at the Kiri Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1786 Creation Place: Asia,East Asia,Japan Object Type: Prints Classification Term: Woodblock Materials and Techniques: Woodblock print. Dimensions: Oban; 36.3 x 25.8 cm Inscriptions: SIGNATURE: Shunko ga AMICA Contributor: The Art Institute of Chicago Owner Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA ID Number: 1925.2368 Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection Rights: http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html Context: Beginning about 1784, Shunko designed oban prints showing the grand, flamboyant dance sequences with onstage musicians (shosagoto joruri) which closed each day's performance in opening-of-the-season (kaomise) plays, and which were such a feature of Kabuki in the Temmei era (1781-1789). In this he was following the lead of Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), who first designed such prints several years earlier. Unlike Kiyonaga, however, Shunko did not include the musicians in the print, nor did he necessarily depict a precise moment from the dance sequence but rather his own imagined grouping of the actors involved.Although the libretto does not survive, making a definite identification difficult, comparison with the illustrated program (ehon banzuke) suggests that this print may depict the final joruri 'Iwai-zuki Neya no Obitoki,' performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month of 1786. The title of the joruri contains a punning reference to the actor Iwai Hanshiro IV (Iwai-zuki can mean 'a fan of Iwai'), who had just returned to Edo after a two-year absence in Osaka. The program illustration shows him in a female role and pose similar to that in Shunko's print - wearing a kimono with long hanging sleeves (furisode) and holding a child swaddled in his own tiny costume. Kabuki Nempyo mentions that in this scene he played the woman Manazuru, who longs to see her child and goes to Hojo Munetoki (played by Monnosuke II) to find him.Kabuki Nempyo also records that Hanshiro IV was joined in the dance sequence by Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Munetoki and Sakata Hangoro III as Kawanaya Tashiro, who made his entrance 'half-drunk.' The scene was a great hit ('o-atari'). The only discrepancies between the present print and the illustrated program are that the latter shows the two male characters in armor and lacks snow. As we have noted, however, Shunko characteristically grouped characters from different stages in a dance scene; furthermore the plays themselves very commonly featured multiple disguises.The three actors intheir dazzlingly patterned costumes form a tight, self-enclosed group. Tasselled fans cascade down Hanshiro IV's scarlet kimono sleeve, surrounded by fans amid swirling waves on the over-kimono. Strong black stripes in Monnosuke II's robe contrast with the narrower black, yellow, and red bands of Hangoro III's costume. Hangoro III stands beneath a dandyish snake's eye umbrella and, inexplicably, carries two frogfish (anko) suspended from a piece of string. One could not hope for a richer evocation of thecolorful stage spectacle afforded by Kabuki dance sequences. AMICA ID: AIC_.1925.2368 AMICA Library Year: 1998 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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