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The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as Kojoro-gitsune (Female Fox) Disguised as Omiki in the Play Komachi-mura Shibai no Shogatsu, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1789 by Katsukawa Shun'ei — Japanese Color woodblock print; hosoban, c. 1789

The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as Kojoro-gitsune (Female Fox) Disguised as Omiki in the Play Komachi-mura Shibai no Shogatsu, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1789

by Katsukawa Shun'ei

Ukiyo-e
Date:
c. 1789
Medium:
Color woodblock print; hosoban

Description

Fox-spirit roles were a staple of kabuki, drawing on a deep stratum of Japanese folk belief in which foxes could assume human form to deceive, seduce, or assist mortals. In this hosoban print in the Art Institute of Chicago, dated to about 1789, Segawa Kikunojō III plays Kojorō-gitsune (Female Fox) disguised as the human Omiki, in the eleventh-month Nakamura Theater production of Komachi-mura Shibai no Shōgatsu. The role would have demanded a particular kind of onnagata virtuosity: the actor needed to register both the human surface and the fox underneath, with telltale moments of supernatural movement breaking through. Shun'ei captures Kikunojō with the school's signature nigao-e precision and renders the costume with subtle indications of the fox role's iconography. The print also illustrates how the Katsukawa school's actor prints documented the full breadth of kabuki repertoire — historical, domestic, supernatural — and how the same star actor might appear across radically different roles in a single season.

More Prints by Katsukawa Shun'ei

Actor Sawamura Sôjûrô III as Oda Kazusanosuke Harunaga in “Muromacho Chronicle in Kana Script” (“Kanagaki Muromachi bundan”) by Katsukawa Shun'ei

Actor Sawamura Sôjûrô III as Oda Kazusanosuke Harunaga in “Muromacho Chronicle in Kana Script” (“Kanagaki Muromachi bundan”)

About 1791

Color woodblock print; hosoban triptych

Act Four: Enya Hangan's Castle from the play Chushingura (Treasury of the Forty-seven Loyal Retainers) by Katsukawa Shun'ei

Act Four: Enya Hangan's Castle from the play Chushingura (Treasury of the Forty-seven Loyal Retainers)

c. 1795

Color woodblock print; koban

The Actor Segawa Tomisaburo II in an Unidentified Role by Katsukawa Shun'ei

The Actor Segawa Tomisaburo II in an Unidentified Role

c. 1793

Color woodblock print; hosoban; from a multisheet composition (?)

The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku II as the maid Tsumagi in the play "Otokyama O-Edo no Ishizue," performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month, 1794 by Katsukawa Shun'ei

The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku II as the maid Tsumagi in the play "Otokyama O-Edo no Ishizue," performed at the Kiri Theater in the eleventh month, 1794

c. 1794

Color woodblock print; hosoban

Frequently Asked Questions

The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as Kojoro-gitsune (Female Fox) Disguised as Omiki in the Play Komachi-mura Shibai no Shogatsu, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1789 was created by Katsukawa Shun'ei (勝川春英) in c. 1789.