The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as the Dragon Maiden Disguised as Osaku in the Play Sayo no Nakayama Hiiki no Tsurigane, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1790

Date:: c. 1790
Medium:: Color woodblock print; hosoban
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Description

Dragon-maiden roles — supernatural female figures from the sea kingdom of the dragon king — gave onnagata performers an opportunity to register an otherworldly mode of femininity inflected by transformative magic. This [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) print in the Art Institute of Chicago, dated to about 1790, shows Segawa Kikunojō III in just such a role: the Dragon Maiden disguised as the human Osaku, in the eleventh-month Nakamura Theater production of Sayo no Nakayama Hiiki no Tsurigane. Shun'ei renders Kikunojō with the precisely individualized facial features that the Katsukawa school had built into its house style, and the costume carries the subtle indicators of the role's mythic underlayer. Like many late-Tenmei and early-Kansei prints, the image documents a single specific evening's production with archival exactness — theater, month, year, role, actor — while also functioning as an aesthetic object capable of holding the viewer's attention well beyond its commercial moment.

The Actor Segawa Kikunojo III as the Dragon Maiden Disguised as Osaku in the Play Sayo no Nakayama Hiiki no Tsurigane, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1790

Description

More Prints by Katsukawa Shun'ei

The Actor Segawa Tomisaburo II in an Unidentified Role

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

Actor Nakamura Noshio II as Tonase in “Model for Kana Calligraphy: Treasury of the 47 Loyal Retainers” (“Kanadehon chûshingura”)

The Actor Sawamura Sojuro III as the Monk Seigen (?) in the Play Saikai Soga Nakamura (?), Performed at the Nakamura Theater (?) in the First Month, 1793 (?)

Frequently Asked Questions