1 Introduction

Kabuki brain puzzles : station-character motif patterns in the actor Tokaido series of Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) Marks, A. Citation Marks, A. (2010, July 1). Kabuki brain puzzles : station-character motif patterns in the actor Tokaido series of Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15755 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the License: Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15755 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). 1INTRODUCTION During the late Edo period (1603–1868), Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) was the most popular and sought-after ukiyoe designer of his day, contrary to today’s favorites Katsu- shika Hokusai ή༬Ǆĺ (1760–1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige ô1୰ (1797–1858). Himself a student of the artist Utagawa Toyokuni ô1࠮6 (1769–1825), Kunisada climbed the ladder of success, illustrating books and designing primarily actor prints (yakushae ņĚί) and portraits of beautiful women (bijinga Ôʡɹ). He would quickly establish his own studio and train over 100 students.1 Initially, he captured the bijin in the style of earlier ukiyoe masters; soon, he depicted idealized imaginary bijin whose hair and clothing styles were widely mimicked by women of the time. The Japanese kabuki theater emphasizes sight and sound with the actors as focus. Actor prints therefore are similarly inclined to portray the performance of an actor on stage, his movements and gestures and, even more importantly, the poses he strikes. Kunisada was a master in emphasizing any actor’s uniqueness and capturing the level of artistic attainment emanating from an actor’s whole being.2 His actor portraits document and immortalize all the great performances and actors of the early nineteenth century, a field that Kunisada dominated over a period of some 50 years. The reason why no catalogue raisonné of Kunisada’s oeuvre, both serial and/or in- dividual designs exists obviously lies in its dimension. In two separate issues of the journal Kikan Ukiyoe from 1977, Yoshida Susugu made the first attempts by listing in the beginning c.2,000 compositions by Kunisada, later adding several hundred more.3 In 1999, Osada Ktoku published a list of works by Kunisada signed ‘Kunisada’ and another of works signed ‘Toyokuni’ in 2001.4 These two publications both record all of the prints he found in numerous books, catalogues, lists, etc. The total of 13,800 prints thus recorded is the result of unreflectingly quoting any source, even those which are not altogether reliable. Such a large number may seem impressive; however, my own studies reveal a confirmed number of almost 15,000 designs (in almost 25,000 sheets) plus the illustrations to around 600 books and over 60 paintings. More surprising is the circumstance that there are only a few monographs dealing with Kunisada. After several articles by a number of Japanese authors that focus on different aspects in connection to Kunisada, appeared in 1928 Ushiyama Mitsuru’s illu- 1. For genealogical lists, see Yoshida 1954, 44; Iijima 1977a; Yoshida 1977d, 127–29; Narazaki 1991, 98–9; Nakayama 1995, 140–41; Schwan 2003, 248; Newland 2005, 527. Iijima 1977a lists also, that Hiroshige had 14 disciples and Kuniyoshi 72 disciples. As a comparison, it may be good to realize that some fifty pupils are believed to have worked in Rembrandt’s ex- ceptionally large atelier, see Bevers 2006, 188; Bruyn 1991. 2. On actor’s personality, see Kawatake 2003, 140–42. 3. Cf. Yoshida 1977a and Yoshida 1977c. 4. Cf. Osada 1999 and Osada 2001. 1 strated catalogues on Kunisada’s bijinga.5 The catalogue Utagawa Kunisada: Bijinga o chshin ni ô16ࡥ<Ôʡɹ=ɋŻ (Utagawa Kunisada: Focussing on Beauty Prints) focuses on the same genre and accompanied the 1996 exhibition of Kunisada’s bijinga at the Seikad Bunko Library, Tokyo.6 Kunisada’s actor prints received considerably more attention, beginning with Ko- jima Usui’s monograph from 1930 that discusses one of Kunisada’s masterpieces, the untitled series popularly known as Kinshd-ban yakusha kubie ౚƉÔÃņĚƂིί (Kinshd Edition of Large Head Actor Portraits). Sebastian Izzard in 1980 wrote the only dissertation explicitly dealing with Kunisada, which focused on his half-length actor portraits.7 Then there is a small number of publications focusing on aspects of Kunisa- da’s actor portraits such as What about Kunisada? by Jan van Doesburg, Shind Shigeru’s Gototei Kunisada: Yakushae no sekai ʆʘʚ6ࡥ<ņĚίȾʇ (Kunisada: The Kabuki Ac- tor Portraits), and the catalogue of an exhibition at the University Gallery Leeds, titled Mirror of the Stage: The Actor Prints of Kunisada, by Ellis Tinios, who also published several articles on a variety of aspects in Kunisada’s actor prints.8 Hayashi Yoshikazu discussed Kunisada’s erotic books in Edo makurae shi shsei: Utagawa Kunisada Ɨ̥ʙί_෨̉<ô16ࡥ (Compilation of Makers of Edo Pillow Pic- tures: Utagawa Kunisada).9 He reproduced here, amongst others, Kunisada’s first erotic - ͖ၙŻ؅ (Nocturnal Procession of a Hundred Demons). Four other erotbook Hyakki yagy ic books were reproduced by Hayashi and Richard Lane in their series The Complete Ukiyo-e Shunga (Ukiyoe shunga meihin shsei ȳȾίƠɹɴ˨෨̉), published between 1995 and 2000. The earliest monograph on Kunisada in a Western language is Willibald Netto’s catalogue for the 1966 exhibition at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, Germany.10 Sebastian Izzard is also responsible for the outstanding exhibition catalogue Kunisada’s World, issued in conjunction with an exhibition at the Japan Society Gallery, New York, in 1993.11 This catalogue provides an excellent overview of Kunisada’s oeuvre. The growing interest in Kunisada is reflected in the number of exhibitions held re- cently, e.g. a show at the Nagoya City Museum, which focused on Kunisada’s works in the collection of Ozaki Kyya ͈βɝĆ (1890–1972), and one drawing on the collection of the National Museum Prague.12 The most recent exhibition accompanied by a catalogue was a show of Kunisada’s early actor prints at Katsuhara Gallery, Nagoya.13 5. Cf. Ushiyama 1928a and Ushiyama 1928b. 6. Cf. Seikad Bunko Library 1996. 7. Cf. Izzard 1980. 8. Cf. Doesburg 1990, Shind 1993, and Tinios 1996. 9. Cf. Hayashi 1989. 10. Cf. Netto 1966. 11. Cf. Izzard 1993. 12. Cf. Nagoya City Museum 2005 and Honcoopová 2005. 13. Cf. Hotta 2006. 2 1.1 Aim of this research Throughout the Edo period, the Tkaid ʂȷ੿ was the most vital road of Japan, and as part of a wide network of smaller and larger highways, it connected Edo Ɨ̥ (present-day Tokyo), the Eastern Capital, with Kyoto, the Western Capital. No other highway in Japan reached such a level of attention and the status of a national symbol such as the Tkaid. After the opening of Japan to the world in the second half of the nineteenth century, modernization and industrialization completely changed the tradi- tional way of life, which involved traveling long distances by foot. With the building of railways and telegraph lines, the horse courier service lost much of its economic value, and traveling lost its recreational appeal. For many, getting to the destination as quickly as possible became more important than the journey itself. There exists a vast amount of literary and artistic work from scrolls until cheap guide books that is centered on the Tkaid and we can infer that this interest pertained to all classes of Japanese society in the Edo period. Books and prints, first produced in the middle of the seventeenth century, document the extensive changes to life and the scenery along the Tkaid during the Edo period. The earliest images mainly depict genre scenes with subordinate scenic elements. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the scenery became the increasing focus of attention. It was established as a separate subject with the emphasis placed on the differences, characteristics and spe- cialties of the fifty-three station towns, the remains of many of which can even be found today. The popularity among the masses started in 1802 with the first issue of Jippensha Ikku’s Ǩਠɒȫɫ (1766–1831) bestselling serial novel Tkaidch hizakurige ʂȷ੿ɋȂ ˩œ (Strolling Along the Tkaid). The success of this story of the adventures of Yaji and Kita would eventually lead, during all of the nineteenth century, to the publication of at least 84 series of Tkaid prints by various designers. Though a Tkaid series tradi- tionally consists of fifty-five prints (fifty-three stations plus the start and the end), the total number might differ, depending on the market at the time of creation. Most importantly, some of these series are only related to the Tkaid on account of their title; however, their main focus may be very different. The reason for this lies in the idea to take advantage of the wide popularity of the Tkaid and to use it as a vehicle to serial- ize prints. In the early 1800s, Hokusai concentrated on human activities and famous products and even Kitagawa Utamaro Ǆ1ôሊ (1753–1806) tried to link his bijinga to the stations, whereas Hiroshige focused on the landscapes themselves and Kunisada on kabuki connections. The Tkaid is generally associated with landscape prints by Hiroshige and Hoku- sai. For many, their designs have provided a notion of Japanese scenery, even today kept alive by Japanese postage stamps, telephone cards, and commuter tickets. Howev- er, that also others employed Tkaid scenes in quite a different setup largely went unnoticed, even more so how a very distinctive type of Tkaid print thus developed. Such a distinctive treatment of the Tkaid theme shows the work of Kunisada who focused in his series on bijin and especially on portraits of actors.

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