Shibai kinmō zui 劇場訓蒙図彙

Object Details

• Artist

  Katsukawa Shun'ei 勝川春英 (1762-1819)

  Utagawa Toyokuni I 歌川豊国 (1769-1825)

• Author

  Shikitei Sanba 式亭三馬 (1776-1822)

• Publisher

  Morimoto Bunkindo 森本文金堂

  Hanamoto Bunshodo 華本文昌堂

• Block carver

  Seiundo Mohe 晴雲堂茂兵衛

• Calligrapher

  Eishosai Choki 栄松斎長喜 (active ca. 1780-1810)

• Label

  The best-selling comic author Shikitei Sanba wrote many popular guides to the daily life and customs of the bustling metropolis of Edo (premodern Tokyo), including this five-volume set detailing a behind-the-scenes look at the sets, costumes, and infrastructure of the kabuki theater. This double-page spread features the props and costumes used to represent several types of supernatural figures the viewer may see on the kabuki stage: on the right-hand side are skeletons (gaikotsu), the reanimated (sosei), ghosts (yūrei), and spurned monks (janen); illustrations on the left page reveal the stage tricks used for ghosts, such as a device made of cotton strips soaked in grain alcohol that formed a spirit flame, or shōchūbi.

• Collection

  Freer Study Collection

• Exhibition History

  Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints (March 23 to October 6, 2024)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase, The Gerhard Pulverer Collection — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art and the Harold P. Stern Memorial fund in appreciation of Jeffrey P. Cunard and his exemplary service to the Museum as chair of the Board of Trustees (2003-2007)

• Type

  Book

• 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

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1890s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1850s, 1680s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Shikitei, Sanba, Seiundo, Mohe, Katsukawa, Shun'ei, Morimoto, Bunkindo, Utagawa, Toyokuni, Hanamoto, Bunshodo, Eishosai, Choki

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Theater, Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Gerhard Pulverer collection

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Books