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The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII in a Shibaraku Role

The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII in a Shibaraku Role

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Utagawa Kunisada

Ichikawa Danjuro VII helped solidify the prominence of Edo kabuki with the compilation The Kabuki Eighteen, a collection of eighteen plays that highlighted the “rough stuff” acting style. Danjuro’s mie, or frozen pose, as he entered the stage is a favorite moment in the theater and a popular subject of Utagawa-school designs. The persimmon-red costume with bold crest of three concentric squares, the accompanying accoutrements of wig, headdress, and sword, and the dramatic make-up combined in a dazzling composition beloved by fans of the kabuki stage and ukiyo-e prints.
Artist
Utagawa Kunisada
(Japanese, 1786 - 1864)
Title
The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII in a Shibaraku Role
Date
1820-1830
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
392 x 260 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2614
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 (Cambridge, MA); 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. 145, no. 125

  • Japanese Masterworks: Woodblock Prints from the Chazen Museum of Art Collection: Chazen Museum of Art, 5/6/2016–8/14/2016
  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008
  • Kabuki: The Drama of Japanese Prints: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 4/19/2003–6/22/2003
  • Splendors of Edo: Japanese Prints, 1750-1930: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 8/7/1999–10/10/1999
  • Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints, The: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/7/1990–11/25/1990
  • 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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