The Actor Nakamura Nakazo I as Chinzei Hachiro Tametomo Disguised as a Pilgrim

Object Details

• Artist

  Katsukawa Shunsho 勝川春章 (1726-1792)

• Label

  In this print, the leading actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV (1737-1802) performs the role of Nagoya Sanzaburo, a character based on a masterless samurai (ronin) who lived in the disorder of the late sixteenth century and traveled among the kabuki-mono, a flagrantly uncontrolled group of rebels who defied social convention. In legend, Nagoya became a romantic figure who was sometimes linked to Okuni, the unconventional female performer who first performed kabuki. This print by Shunsho, the artist who produced the first realistic portraits of actors, would have belonged to a set that, when placed side by side, portrayed several actors in the same play. Here the handsome actor, wearing a stylish costume with a coat decorated with triple umbrellas, raises the deep straw hat that was worn as a disguise to conceal his identity.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne van Biema Collection (September 15, 2002 to January 9, 2003)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Anne van Biema Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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  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

  Katsukawa, Shunsho

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Theater, Yakusha-e, Art, Pilgrimage, Actors and actresses, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Anne van Biema collection, Portraits, Ukiyo-e, Hosoban

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints