print
- Museum number
- 2016,3039.7
- Title
- Series: Mitate sanjurokkasen no uchi 見立三十六歌撰之内 ([Kabuki Roles] Paired with the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets)
- Description
-
Colour woodblock print. The Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro VIII as the priest Seigen, set against a windswept landscape at night with cherry trees in bloom, with a poem above by Ariwara no Narihira.
- Production date
- 1852
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39 centimetres
-
Width: 26 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This set of thirty-six prints combines kabuki performance history with literary education. The "Thirty-six Poets" was a well known anthology of thirty-six classical verses published in educational texts throughout the Edo period. Intended as models of poetic expression, the verses would have been familiar to those with an interest in literature. The set links popular kabuki roles with the poems in the anthology. While the links vary in character (some are thematic; others are based on a word or pun), the aim is to posit connections between two worlds that may at first appear unrelated: modern kabuki and ancient poetry. The kabuki roles were selected from the most popular plays of the Edo period and often turned young actors into major stars. In this set, the faces are likenesses of celebrated actors, indicating a second mode of linking: twenty-five of the actors at one time performed the role illustrated, and the remaining eleven, if they never actually performed the given role, probably should have, at least in the view of those who were devoted fans of kabuki at the time. Playful cultural associations and the imaginative process of what has been called "dream casting" were established features of Edo kabuki culture. Produced between the ninth and eleventh months of 1852 in order to be ready for the 1852-53 theatrical season, these thirty-six prints were conceived and might have been purchased as a set. The prints are a superb expression of the early-modern art of print design and print-making. They are rarely found in this pristine condition.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Kiyomizu Seigen (Priest Seigen of Kiyomizu)
- Acquisition date
- 2016
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2016,3039.7
