Mitate (Parody) of Ono no Tofu in the Play Geiko Zashiki Kyogen

Katsukawa Shunsho turns to the visual genre of mitate ("parody" or "transposition") in this print of the courtier-calligrapher Ono no Tofu reimagined in the kabuki play Geiko Zashiki Kyogen. Mitate works by taking a famous classical subject and reframing it in a contemporary setting; here, the well-known legend of Ono no Tofu watching a frog leap repeatedly at a willow branch (and drawing inspiration from its persistence) is restaged as a moment in an Edo entertainment-house performance. Shunsho gives the figure the dignified silhouette of a Heian-period courtier, complete with court hat and trailing robes, but the surrounding gestures and the framing of the scene signal the kabuki context. The Katsukawa school's reformed Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e is in full evidence: a face individuated enough to identify the actor playing the parody role, a disciplined palette of indigo, gray, and ocher, and a confident printed contour line. The image, held by the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrates the breadth of subject matter Shunsho took on in addition to straightforward actor portraits. Mitate prints relied on a literate audience that could enjoy the layered references between classical legend, contemporary stage, and printed page, and they bear witness to the sophisticated visual culture in which the Katsukawa workshop operated. As such, this sheet is both a fine example of Shunsho's draftsmanship and a small document of how Edo theatergoers and print collectors thought about the relationships among history, performance, and image.