Puppeteer and shamisen player

Object Details

• Artist

  Tsukioka Settei 月岡雪鼎 (1710-1786)

• Description

  A woman puppeteer performs with a large puppet while another woman, posed with her back to the viewer, plays a three-stringed instrument called the shamisen. The puppet itself represents a performer who carries a small hand drum at his hip.

• Signatures

  Signature: "Hogen Tsukioka Settei ga jinen rokujuyusan."

• Marks

  Seal: one circular seal.

• Label

  Puppet performances in public and private settings were popular during the Edo period (1615-1868). Here, a woman plays the shamisen, a three-stringed instrument, while the woman facing her holds a puppet aloft. With a hand drum at its hip, the puppet joins the shamisen player in performance. The puppeteer's artistry at manipulating the mechanical doll creates an amusing duet of human and puppet performers.

• Provenance

  To 1986

  Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon Norcross, Adamstown, MD [1]

  From 1986

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon Norcross, Adamstown, MD [2]

  Notes:

  [1] The hanging scroll was a gift from Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon Norcross on June 1986. It was transferred from the Freer Study Collection to the Freer Gallery of Art permanent collection on December 1987. See object file, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan (March 19 to October 23, 2005)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon Norcross

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Elizabeth Gordon Norcross

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Norcross, Elizabeth Gordon

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Art, Playing, Shamisen, Music, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Puppets, Japanese Art, Woman, Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings