The Actor Ichikawa Danzo VI as Kakogawa Honzo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits

The Actor Ichikawa Danzo VI as Kakogawa Honzo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits

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Utagawa Kunisada

This print depicts Ichikawa Danzo VI in the role of Kakogawa Honzo from one of the most popular kabuki dramas, Copy Book of the Storehouse of Loyal Retainers. Danzo VI was most celebrated for playing male roles. His portraits are distinctive due to representations of his relatively large, bulging eyes. Disguised as a mendicant monk, he wears a simple outer robe with a black stole over his shoulder. This dramatic composition includes deceptively austere textiles. The outer robe is overprinted with a clear gloss in a detailed pattern, and the barely visible inner robes are also intricately patterned. His face shows soft contours around his eyes and an unshaven, darkened area along his jaw line.
Artist
Utagawa Kunisada
(Japanese, 1786 - 1864)
Title
The Actor Ichikawa Danzo VI as Kakogawa Honzo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits
Date
3/1860
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
13 3/8 x 9 1/2 in. Overall
Credit
John H. Van Vleck Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
2006.11
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 156, no. 140

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