Click or tap on the blue flames to learn more about the techniques and details that brought these stories to life for their audiences.
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In the third act of Ghost Story of Yotsuya on the Tōkaidō, the villainous Iemon finds the bodies of Oiwa and Kohei floating in a river, nailed to either side of a raindoor—and both Oiwa and Kohei are played by the same actor. To accomplish this onstage, the actor hides underneath a mock embankment as a prop door is moved into place. Wearing a facial prosthetic to appear as Oiwa, the actor places their head and hands through holes in the door, while a dummy body completes the illusion for the audience. The door is then covered and flipped over, as it has another dummy body for Kohei on the other side. Meanwhile, the actor is assisted by a stagehand to change into Kohei’s makeup. Again placing their head and hands through the holes, the actor now appears as Kohei to a stunned and delighted audience. This special effect was known as the “raindoor flip” (toitagaeshi) and was developed by Naoeya Jūbei (1781–1831), the son of the play’s author. To commemorate performances of this feat, print publishers occasionally produced “trick pictures” (shikake-e) such as this, where a printed piece of paper could show both characters in succession.
Click or tap on the blue flames to learn more about the techniques and details that brought these stories to life for their audiences.
This print is a shikake-e, or “trick picture,” where a piece of paper has been pasted along one edge and attached to the print. When the paper is lifted, a new detail is revealed. This was often used to paste the image of one actor’s face over another, if more than one actor played a role or if the original actor became sick. In this case, the paper has been pasted halfway along the door in the center sheet. At first, the image shows Oiwa nailed to one side of the door. When the paper is lifted, Kohei’s body is revealed. This captures the moment in the kabuki play when the actor who plays both the roles of Oiwa and Kohei performs the “raindoor flip” stage technique, appearing as each character in rapid succession by performing a quick costume change. This remarkable stage trick was a sensation, and prints like this tried to capture the ingenuity of the stage on paper.
Return to objectThe wooden stakes in the background are carved with messages like “a hit” and “a huge achievement.” The print was made to commemorate a performance of Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan at the Nakamura theater in Edo that debuted on the 11th day of the 7th month, 1861. This scene takes place on a river embankment beside a graveyard (onbōbori). Instead of inscriptions of names on the grave markers, these stakes in the print act like advertisements for the play.
Return to objectThe government required that prints be approved by censors before publication. From 1859 until 1871, a seal that combined the month and year with the character aratame (“inspected”) was included on each print. This mark combines aratame with the character tora for the year of the tiger.
Return to objectThe government required that artists and publishers include their identifying information on the prints that they published. This design is the seal of the publisher Ebisuya Shōshichi, who operated the Kinshōdō publishing house, active ca. 1846–1883.
Return to objectThe upright rectangles in red and yellow give the names of the actors and the characters they play. The red rectangle contains the name of the actor, and the yellow rectangle has the name of the character. Three of the characters in the image—Oiwa and Kohei on either side of the door in the center sheet and Satō Yomoshichi on the far left—all have the same actor’s name included in the red rectangle, Bandō Hikosaburō V (1832–1877). This is because the same actor played all three roles. Certain actors, like Bandō Hikosaburō V, specialized in the technique of quick costume changes, hayagawari, where they appeared in multiple roles within the same scene, thrilling the audience with their skills.
Return to objectAlthough much rarer than publisher seals, the name of the woodblock carver sometimes appears on woodblock prints. These can be identified easily because they begin with the character hori, which means “to carve.” In this case, the name is given as “Hori Take,” which was used for the carver Yokokawa Takejirō. Although his life dates are not known, he was active in the nineteenth century.
Return to objectThe main ghost character in the play, Oiwa, pictured in the center sheet, has her name included in a blue rectangle. Blue is the traditional color of ghosts in Japan, and they are often accompanied by shinka, “spirit flames.” These vertical flames are orange and blue and are often featured in prints to indicate supernatural characters. To create this effect on the kabuki stage, a stagehand dressed in black (kurogo) stands to one side and holds up a strip of cloth next to the ghost character by hanging it from a rod. The cloth is soaked in grain alcohol and set on fire. This chemical mixture generates eerie green and blue flames.
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