print
- Museum number
- 1902,0212,0.202
- Description
-
Colour woodblock print. Actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as deity Fudo Myo-o of Narita, standing on rock in waterfall, surrounded by flames, holding sword to quell evil and rope to snare wrongdoers. Issued to mark opening-of-the-season (kaomise) performance, Kite kaeru nishiki no wakayaka (極翻錦壮貌; So Youthful!: Brocades to Wear When Returning Home') at the Nakamura theatre in the eleventh month of 1780. Signed.
- Production date
- 1780 (11th month)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 56 centimetres (Mounted)
-
Height: 32.80 centimetres
-
Width: 40.50 centimetres (Mounted)
-
Width: 15.10 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
Shunsho here adds a 'likeness' (nigao-e) of the actor Danjuro V onto the figure of the deity Fudo Myoo, in a hit scene 'The Stone Satue of Fudo', performed in 1780. The leading Danjuro lineage of actors were regarded as actual manifestations of Fudo. (Label copy, TTC, 1998)
-
Smith et al 1990
Shunsho revolutionised the portrayal of Kabuki actors during the later 1760s by designing prints which for the first time captured an actual likeness ('nigao-e') of the actors' facial features. Such a talent is made startlingly apparent in this print, where the immediately recognisable long nose, large downturned mouth and small, wide-set eyes of Danjuro V have been 'superimposed' on to a statue-like figure of the ferocious Buddhist deity Fudo Myo-O (Acala). Fudo Myo-O was regarded as the tutelary deity of the leading Ichikawa Danjuro line of actors, and had been portrayed on stage by the family since the times of Ichikawa Danjuro I (1660-1704).
Danjuro V played this part four times in his career, and this print is thought to have been issued to commemorate the last occasion, a tremendously popular scene, 'The stone statue of Fudo' ('Sekizo no Fudo'), in the play 'Kite kaeru nishiki no wakayaka', the opening-of-the-season ('kaomise') performance at the Nakamura theatre in the eleventh month of 1780. The deity is shown standing on a rock in a waterfall, surrounded by flames, holding a sword to quell evil and rope to snare wrongdoers.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Sep 2020 - Jan 2021, BM, Room 35, "Tantra: enlightenment to revolution"
- Acquisition date
- 1902
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1902,0212,0.202
