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The Actor Onoe Matsusuke I as the Ghost of Iohata

The Actor Onoe Matsusuke I as the Ghost of Iohata

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Utagawa Toyokuni

The kabuki actor Onoe Matsusuke I was a major star, responsible for the rise in popularity of ghost-play acting in the early nineteenth century. Audiences adored tales of murder and revenge, and the theaters responded by staging increasingly sophisticated special effects. The ghost plays were a prime showcase for these spectacles. Toyokuni designed many prints of Matsusuke in a variety of ghost roles. Here the actor plays the ghost of Iohata. The fully costumed actor is rendered, legless, floating through the air. The inclusion of flames denoted the presence of the supernatural.
Artist
Utagawa Toyokuni
(Japanese, 1769 - 1825)
Title
The Actor Onoe Matsusuke I as the Ghost of Iohata
Date
1806
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
376 x 252 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3179
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. 99, no. 63

  • Japanese Masterworks: Woodblock Prints from the Chazen Museum of Art Collection: Chazen Museum of Art, 5/6/2016–8/14/2016
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008
  • Calm Lives, Exuberant Pleasures : Outstanding Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Van Vleck Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 3/31/1984–4/15/1984

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