Detail View: The AMICA Library: The actor Segawa Kikunojo III in private life, standing in a snow-covered garden

AIC_.1949.39

1998

Prints

Katsukawa, Shunsho

Asian; Far East Asian; Japanese

Japanese; 1726-1792 Asia,East Asia,Japan

Katsukawa Shunsho

The actor Segawa Kikunojo III in private life, standing in a snow-covered garden

preferred

full view

c. 1775

1770

1780

Woodblock print.

Woodblock

Asia,East Asia,Japan

Large hosoban; 38.5 x 17.5 cm

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, USA

1949.39

The Art Institute of Chicago, The Clarence Buckingham Collection.

SIGNATURE: Shunsho ga

http://www.artic.edu/aic/rights/main.rights.html

This special portrait of Segawa Kikunojo III must have been issued shortly after the young actor succeeded to this prestigious name at the opening-of-the-season (kaomise) performance in the eleventh month of 1774, in his mid-twenties and doubtless at theheight of his beauty. As Ichiyama Tonisaburo, he had arrived from Osaka the previous year with sufficiently high reputation to be named by Kikunojo II as his successor when the latter lay dying in the third month of 1773. Kikunojo III danced 'Musume Dojo-ji' (The Maiden at Dojo-ji), one of Kikunojo II's best-loved roles, in memory of his predecessor, and quickly won over Edo fans with his good looks and charm in female roles. Together with Nakamura Tomijuro I, he would dominate 'young woman' (waka-onnagata) roles during the 1770s and '80s and on into the nineteenth century.The actor is shown not in costume but in the height of offstage good taste, elegantly posed in a snowy garden. By showing Kikunojo's hand tucked inside his long hanging sleeve and raised in a gesture of aesthetic delight, Shunsho simultaneously reveals the beauty of the garment and calls our attention to the beauty of the scene. In his other hand Kikunojo III holds a furled umbrella. Scattered chrysanthemum blossoms decorate the skirt of the pale blue kimono, and the actor's formal crest (jomon), a bundle of floss silk (yuiwata), is just visible at the breast. The fashionably long purple jacket (haori) has a pattern of decorated New Year balls and also bears Kikunojo III's informal crest (kaemon) of a chrysanthemum-and-butterfly (kiku-cho). About this time a new hair style called lantern locks (torobin), in which the side locks were combed outward to resemble the silhouette of a paper lantern, had just become the rage. Kikunojo III, whose stage persona made him a leader of female fashion, was of course to be seen in the latest style.The larger-than-normal size of this hosoban print, together with the careful cutting and printing, suggests that it might have been specially commissioned by some wealthy theater patron keen to promote the career of the attractive young man. Kikunojo II and III are both known, in fact, to have enjoyed the special support and patronage of Lord Matsudaira Munenobu (Nankai; 1729-1782), daimyo of Matsue. The possibility that it was a special commission is further borne out by the haiku poem printed above the figure, which was composed by Kikunojo III and signed with his pen name, Roko: Hatsuyuki ya (The first snow!) monomi e hakobu (Move the foot-warmer) okigotatsu (To the balcony with the view.)A similar print is known, showing Yamashita Kinsaku II holding a fan and with a poem referring to summer planting. Suzuki Juzo suggests that these two may originally have formed half of a set of four portraits of popular female impersonators in settings relating to the four seasons.

AIC_.E19712.TIF