Sketchbook depicting Kabuki play Terokoya

Object Details

• Artist

  Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林清親 (1847-1915)

• Description

  Bound album with silk covered front and back covers. Separate protective cover with two ivory toggle closures. Contains thirty-seven illustrations, each the full width of an unfolded sheet, illustrate a farcical Kabuki performance. In the first sequence, a couple offers a box of rice balls which attract great interest from a man perched high in a stand. He falls head first and becomes covered with rice balls. Later, a warrior approaches along the hanamichi leading toward the stage and other action ensues onstage.

• Signatures

  The signature identifies the painter as Kobayashi Kiyochika.

• Inscriptions

  This satirical album begins with an inscription in the form of a seventeen-syllable verse by Ozaki Koha reading:

  gei nashi no

  yokan wo hadaka no

  odori kana

  "[A performance] without art [is like] dancing naked in late winter"

• Provenance

  To 2004

  Robert O. Muller (1911-2003), Newtown, CT, to 2004

  From 2004

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from the Estate of Robert O. Muller through Joan Mirviss, Ltd., New York, NY, in 2004

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection (November 06, 2004 to January 7, 2007)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert O. Muller (1911-2003)

  Estate of Robert O. Muller

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase from the Estate of Robert O. Muller — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art and the Harold P. Stern Memorial Fund

• 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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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1900s

• Name

  Muller, Robert O., Estate of Robert O. Muller

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Theater, Art, Men, Japanese Art, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings