The Actor "Yamatoya", from the series Figures of Actors on Stage

The Actor "Yamatoya", from the series Figures of Actors on Stage

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Utagawa Toyokuni

Beginning in 1794, Toyokuni designed more than fifty prints in this series, one of his most successful, before he ceased work on it in 1796. The depicted actor’s family or house name, clearly defining an actor’s relationship to the various kabuki family dynasties, was included in the cartouche. This print includes the actor’s house name of “Yamatoya,” which was used by Bando Mitsugoro II. Tokyokuni draws Mitsugoro with his distinctive curved nose and includes the Bando Mitsugoro family crest on his outer robe. Here Mitsugoro is shown in the role of Ishii Genzo from the play Blooming Iris: Soga Vendetta of the Bunroku Era. The story was based on historical events from 1701. To circumvent reforms that prohibited depictions of current events, the dramatic version was set nearly two hundred years earlier. In the play, Ishii Genzo and his brother Ishii Hanjiro plot and kill Fujikawa Mizuemon, who murdered their father twenty years earlier.
Artist
Utagawa Toyokuni
(Japanese, 1769 - 1825)
Title
The Actor "Yamatoya", from the series Figures of Actors on Stage
Date
5/1794
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
362 x 241 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3146
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. 88, no. 45
  • Osumi, Takeshige, ed. "Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection Ukiyo-e Masterpieces Exhibition." Tokyo: Bun You Associates, 1999.
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 325

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/2/2009–11/26/2009
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008
  • Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/13/1999–6/30/2000

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