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View of a Kabuki Theater, from the series Perspective Pictures

View of a Kabuki Theater, from the series Perspective Pictures

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Utagawa Toyoharu

Perspective pictures of theater interiors provide some of the best visual documentation of Edo-period building practices. Toyoharu’s minutely detailed designs use architectural lines to convey the diminishing single-point perspective that characterizes this print genre. The roofed stage and two-story viewing galleries were features of the massive wooden structures. Actors entered and exited the stage on the wood-planked walkway, called a hanamichi, or “flower street,” that ran along the left side of the theater. Kabuki productions were rowdy social gatherings where people talked and ate during the performance. Vendors selling food and drink are seen making their way through the animated crowd.
Artist
Utagawa Toyoharu
(Japanese, 1735 - 1814)
Title
View of a Kabuki Theater, from the series Perspective Pictures
Date
11/1770
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
247 x 366 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3086
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 58, no. 3

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008

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