Information
- Title
- Arashi Rikan II as the Shogun Taro, Nakamura Karoku I as Takiyosa, and Ichikawa Sukejiro in an unidentified role in a scene from the Play Soma Tarō Hyōbundan performed at the Naka Theater in 11/1832
- Object Number
- 2011-59 a-b
- Description
- This diptych depicts a performance of the Kabuki play Soma Tarō Hyōbundan. While Kabuki was a typical subject in Edo-period prints, this print is unusual in that it places the scene in a landscape setting; the style of the landscape employs a painting mode invented by the Maruyama-Shijō workshop, one of the most important Kyoto-based painting studios of the Edo period. This appropriation of a painting style for a theater print background was unusual and demonstrates the innovation of print artists working in Osaka. In the most interesting cases – as here – Osaka prints transformed the typical formulae of contemporary mainstream productions from the city of Edo. This print also experiments with dramatic perspective. Like many Osaka prints, it is technically accomplished – some of the best block carvers and printers worked in Osaka – and the condition is excellent.
- Medium
- Woodblock print (ōban tate-e diptych); ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- each sheet trimmed to block: 37.8 x 26 cm. (14 7/8 x 10 1/4 in.) overall sheet (a-b, joined): 37.8 x 52 cm
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund, selected for acquisition by students in ART 425: The Japanese Print
- Culture
- Japanese
- Period
- Edo period
- Place made
- Asia, Japan
- Techniques
–2011 Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art (New York, NY), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2011.
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