Actors on Stage: Segawa Kikunojo III (Hamamuraya) as the Shirabyoshi Dancer Hisakata

Object Details

• Artist

  Utagawa Toyokuni I 歌川豊国 (1769-1825)

• Label

  In Actors on the Stage (Yakusha butai no sugata-e), Toyokuni created a highly successful series of more than forty known designs in the oban format, which allowed for a larger and more impressive image than the narrow hosoban that had been the dominant format for actor prints before the 1790s. Here the actor Segawa Kikunojo III plays the female character Hisakata, who performs a shirabyoshi dance. Shirabyoshi-a performance style in which women wore male attire, the black headwear of courtiers, and short swords while performing to rhythmical accompaniment-originated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The actor strikes a pose that expresses his grace and beauty as he unfurls and displays the sleeves of his kimono.

  Kikunojo was a versatile actor who often performed women's roles. Known to his fans by his yago, Hamamuraya, which appears after the series title of this print, he was a brilliant performer, especially in the demanding henge mono dance pieces in which the actor was required to change costumes and roles quickly as he enacted, for example, a ghost who could assume many different forms. Kikunojo commanded a large income and was held in such esteem that he was called Hamamuraya Daimyojin, a title associated with Shinto deities.

• 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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• Related Resources

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• 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

  Utagawa, Toyokuni

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints