Detail View: The AMICA Library: The actor Ichikawa Danjuro IV in the role of an Immortal Hermit (sennin), possibly Tenjiku Tokubei in the play Tenjiku Tokubei Kokyo no Torikaji (Tenjiku Tokubei Turns the Helm Toward Home)
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AMICA ID:
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AIC_.1925.2385
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AMICA Library Year:
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1998
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Object Type:
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Prints
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Creator Name:
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Katsukawa, Shunsho
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Creator Nationality:
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Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
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Creator Dates/Places:
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Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
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Creator Name-CRT:
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Katsukawa Shunsho
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Title:
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The actor Ichikawa Danjuro IV in the role of an Immortal Hermit (sennin), possibly Tenjiku Tokubei in the play Tenjiku Tokubei Kokyo no Torikaji (Tenjiku Tokubei Turns the Helm Toward Home)
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Title Type:
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preferred
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View:
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full view
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Creation Date:
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Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the eighth month, 1768
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Creation Start Date:
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1768
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Creation End Date:
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1768
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Materials and Techniques:
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Woodblock print.
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Classification Term:
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Woodblock
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Creation Place:
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Asia,East Asia,Japan
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Dimensions:
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Hosoban; 32.8 x 15.4 cm
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AMICA Contributor:
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The Art Institute of Chicago
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Owner Location:
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Chicago, Illinois, USA
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ID Number:
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1925.2385
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Credit Line:
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The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection
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Inscriptions:
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SIGNATURE: Shunsho gaARTIST'S SEAL: Hayashi in jar-shaped outline
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Rights:
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Context:
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With his mane of unkempt hair, rough-hewn staff, and preternaturally long toenails, Danjuro IV certainly looks the Immortal Hermit, and scholars have not hesitated to identify the role as Ki no Natora in the opening-of-the-season (kaomise) production at the Nakamura Theater in the eleventh month of 1765. Kabuki records do indeed describe Danjuro IV making his entrance in this production dressed as a mountain hermit. Contradicting this identification, however, are illustrations in the actor critiques published the following years and a print by Buncho - all of which show Danjuro IV as Ki no Natora wearing a different wig and a costume with leaves around his shoulders and waist (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, fig. 28.1, p.107).By the form of the signature - Shunsho ga in large, bold characters; and by the formula used for the background, in which a small, stylized white band of mist hovers at the top center of the (faded) indigo blue ground. In the eighth month of 1768 Danjuro IV appeared as Tenjiku Tokubei, a Japanese sea captain who learned supernatural skills in India, in the play Tenjiku Tokubei Kokyo no Torikaji at the Nakamura Theater. The early plot of the story is not known, but in nineteenth-century versions Tokubei was able to take on the form of a giant toad to escape his enemies. In this print Danjuro IV's appearance as an Immortal Hermit with a staff may be intended to suggest that he has come from the far-off and exotic land of India and possesses magical skills. A definite identification, however, will have to await further evidence.The colors of the present impression are severely faded: the indigo blue background and 'streaked' (sujiguma) blue face makeup are now sand-colored, and the originally purple (?) baggy trousers have faded to brown. In another impression in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, these trousers are printed in dark gray.
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Related Image Identifier Link:
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AIC_.E19634.TIF
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