COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
mediaCollectionId
AMICO~1~1
The AMICA Library
Collection
true
AMICA ID:
AIC_.1939.679
amicoid
AIC_.1939.679
AMICA ID
false
AMICA Library Year:
1998
aly
1998
AMICA Library Year
false
Object Type:
Prints
oty
Prints
Object Type
false
Creator Name:
Katsukawa, Shunsho
crn
Katsukawa, Shunsho
Creator Name
false
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
crc
Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese
Creator Nationality
false
Creator Dates/Places:
Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
cdt
Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creator Dates/Places
false
Creator Name-CRT:
Katsukawa Shunsho
crt
Katsukawa Shunsho
Creator Name-CRT
false
Title:
The actor Bando Mitsugoro I as Abbot Saimyo-ji Tokiyori, disguised as a monk
otn
The actor Bando Mitsugoro I as Abbot Saimyo-ji Tokiyori, disguised as a monk
Title
false
Title Type:
preferred
ott
preferred
Title Type
false
View:
full view
rid
full view
View
false
Creation Date:
Performed at the Morita Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1773
oct
Performed at the Morita Theater from the first day of the eleventh month, 1773
Creation Date
false
Creation Start Date:
1773
ocs
1773
Creation Start Date
false
Creation End Date:
1773
oce
1773
Creation End Date
false
Materials and Techniques:
Woodblock print.
omd
Woodblock print.
Materials and Techniques
false
Classification Term:
Woodblock
clt
Woodblock
Classification Term
false
Creation Place:
Asia,East Asia,Japan
ocp
Asia,East Asia,Japan
Creation Place
false
Dimensions:
Hosoban; 31.2 x 13.5 cm
met
Hosoban; 31.2 x 13.5 cm
Dimensions
false
AMICA Contributor:
The Art Institute of Chicago
oon
The Art Institute of Chicago
AMICA Contributor
false
Owner Location:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
oop
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Owner Location
false
ID Number:
1939.679
ooa
1939.679
ID Number
false
Credit Line:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Frederick W. Gookin Collection
ooc
The Art Institute of Chicago, Frederick W. Gookin Collection
Credit Line
false
Inscriptions:
SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga (trimmed from bottom left)
oin
SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga (trimmed from bottom left)
Inscriptions
false
Rights:
orl
<a href="http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html"target="_new">http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html</a>
Rights
false
Context:
The actor Bando Mitsugoro I as Abbot Saimyo-ji Tokiyori, disguised as a monk, in the joruri 'Onna Hachi no Ki' (A Female Version of 'The Potted Trees') from part two of the play Onna Aruji Hatsuyuki no Sekai (A Woman as Master: the World of the First Snow). 'Hachi no Ki' (The Potted Trees) was a popular joruri for inclusion in opening-of-the-season productions because it provided the snow scene obligatory for the kaomise: in this case, the famous episode in which the regent Tokiyori, disguised as an itinerant monk, seeks shelter from the snow at the cottage of Sano Genzaemon; Genzaemon, having no other firewood, chops up his beloved potted trees to make a fire for his guest. A more detailed plot synopsis occurs in the commentary to Number 39 (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, p.128), but the novelty of the 1773 performance lay in Tokiyori's reception not by Sano Genzaemon but by his wife Shirotae and her sister Tamazusa- hence the title 'Onna Hachi no Ki' (A Female Version of 'The Potted Trees'). The dramatist Chikamatsu had similarly switched the sexes in a puppet play written in 1699, and by 1707 the idea had already been taken over into Kabuki.The illustrated program (ehon banzuke) for the performance of 1773 shows Bando MitsugoroI as Tokiyori outside the gate to the farmhouse, Nakamura Tomiju?ro I as Shirotae wearing a straw cape against the snow and carrying a basket of vegetables and Nakamura Noshio I as Tamazusa in the famous pose of sweeping the snow from the eaves with a broom (see 'The Actor'sImage' catalogue, fig. 68.1, p.201).This is one of the first plays mentioned by Lord Yanagisawa Nobutoki in his theater diary, Enyu? Nikki Betsuroku, which he began writing in 1773. Of the socially varied crowd that attended the performance on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month he writes, 'Two women who looked like geisha came [and sat in the box] next door. In five boxes on the opposite side were customers of the Onoya [theater teahouse]- the wives of various lords wearing wraparound cotton head scarves to disguise their features.'The sense of seriousness, even gravitas, with which Shunsho has imbued his portrait of Tokiyori confutes the misguided notion that Kabuki was (and is) nothing more than a colorful popular spectacle devoid of emotional content. Regent Tokiyori's purpose in disguising himself as a humble itinerant monk was to learn firsthand the condition of the people and the distribution of enemy forces throughout the nation; his sober expression and firm stance amid the thickly falling snow convey both the arduousness of the mission he has set himself and his unswerving resolution in pursuing it.Clearly Shunsho intended a somber color scheme to match this serious theme: Tokiyori's monastic robes were rendered in white, gray, and black, with the folds of his black cotton rain jacket (kappa) left in stark white reserve. The orange-red lead pigment (tan) of the brushwood fence and of Tokiyori's staff, hat, and straw sandals has taken on a deep purple-black tarnish, and the white lead of his kimono has dulled to a heavy gray. It remains an intriguing question whether these rich patinas on the surface of the lead pigments were intended by the artist and his printer, perhaps even artificially induced. In any event, to have abandoned the glorious full color of the new 'brocade print' technology in favor of a grisaille color scheme is surely a mark of unusual artistic sophistication.
cxd
The actor Bando Mitsugoro I as Abbot Saimyo-ji Tokiyori, disguised as a monk, in the joruri 'Onna Hachi no Ki' (A Female Version of 'The Potted Trees') from part two of the play Onna Aruji Hatsuyuki no Sekai (A Woman as Master: the World of the First Snow). 'Hachi no Ki' (The Potted Trees) was a popular joruri for inclusion in opening-of-the-season productions because it provided the snow scene obligatory for the kaomise: in this case, the famous episode in which the regent Tokiyori, disguised as an itinerant monk, seeks shelter from the snow at the cottage of Sano Genzaemon; Genzaemon, having no other firewood, chops up his beloved potted trees to make a fire for his guest. A more detailed plot synopsis occurs in the commentary to Number 39 (see 'The Actor's Image' catalogue, p.128), but the novelty of the 1773 performance lay in Tokiyori's reception not by Sano Genzaemon but by his wife Shirotae and her sister Tamazusa- hence the title 'Onna Hachi no Ki' (A Female Version of 'The Potted Trees'). The dramatist Chikamatsu had similarly switched the sexes in a puppet play written in 1699, and by 1707 the idea had already been taken over into Kabuki.The illustrated program (ehon banzuke) for the performance of 1773 shows Bando MitsugoroI as Tokiyori outside the gate to the farmhouse, Nakamura Tomiju?ro I as Shirotae wearing a straw cape against the snow and carrying a basket of vegetables and Nakamura Noshio I as Tamazusa in the famous pose of sweeping the snow from the eaves with a broom (see 'The Actor'sImage' catalogue, fig. 68.1, p.201).This is one of the first plays mentioned by Lord Yanagisawa Nobutoki in his theater diary, Enyu? Nikki Betsuroku, which he began writing in 1773. Of the socially varied crowd that attended the performance on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month he writes, 'Two women who looked like geisha came [and sat in the box] next door. In five boxes on the opposite side were customers of the Onoya [theater teahouse]- the wives of various lords wearing wraparound cotton head scarves to disguise their features.'The sense of seriousness, even gravitas, with which Shunsho has imbued his portrait of Tokiyori confutes the misguided notion that Kabuki was (and is) nothing more than a colorful popular spectacle devoid of emotional content. Regent Tokiyori's purpose in disguising himself as a humble itinerant monk was to learn firsthand the condition of the people and the distribution of enemy forces throughout the nation; his sober expression and firm stance amid the thickly falling snow convey both the arduousness of the mission he has set himself and his unswerving resolution in pursuing it.Clearly Shunsho intended a somber color scheme to match this serious theme: Tokiyori's monastic robes were rendered in white, gray, and black, with the folds of his black cotton rain jacket (kappa) left in stark white reserve. The orange-red lead pigment (tan) of the brushwood fence and of Tokiyori's staff, hat, and straw sandals has taken on a deep purple-black tarnish, and the white lead of his kimono has dulled to a heavy gray. It remains an intriguing question whether these rich patinas on the surface of the lead pigments were intended by the artist and his printer, perhaps even artificially induced. In any event, to have abandoned the glorious full color of the new 'brocade print' technology in favor of a grisaille color scheme is surely a mark of unusual artistic sophistication.
Context
false
Related Image Identifier Link:
AIC_.E19707.TIF
ril
AIC_.E19707.TIF
Related Image Identifier Link
false