Picture Book of Stage Fans (Ehon Butai Ogi)
Kabuki Actor: Nakajima Mihozô II

Picture Book of Stage Fans (Ehon Butai Ogi)
Kabuki Actor: Nakajima Mihozô II

Katsukawa Shunsho
Japanese, 1726 - 1792

1770

woodblock print
18.5 x 22.8 centimeters

print

Kabuki is thought to have originated in the dances and light theater first performed in Kyoto in 1603 by Okuni, a female attendant at the Izumo shrine. The word Kabuki had connotations of the shocking, unorthdox, and fashionable. Because an important side of business of the women of Kabuki troupes was prostitution. When the Tokugawa Shogunate banned both women and adolescents from the stage, Kabuki became a theater of mature, male performers. Sunsho's genius for realism can be seen in portraits of individual actors that contrast with the previous stylized formalism of the Torii prints. After 1770, Shunsho illustrated at least sixteen books, many distinguished by fine color and composition that later proved to be significant to the further development of Ukiyo-e.

The actor Nakajima Mihoemon III held the name of Nakajima Mihozô II from the 11th lunar month of 1764 to the 10th lunar month of 1783.

University Purchase with funds from the Charles I. and Blanche Barber Fine Arts Fund.

Kariganeya Ihei (雁金屋伊兵衛)