The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku I as a peddler of tooth-blackening dye

Yamashita Kinsaku I, one of the leading onnagata of mid-1720s Edo kabuki, is shown by Torii Kiyomasu II in the role of a peddler of tooth-blackening dye (ohaguro). The blackening of teeth - ohaguro - was a cosmetic practice for married women in Edo Japan, with the blackening dye (typically a solution of iron filings dissolved in vinegar and tea, sometimes sweetened with sake) applied to the teeth to produce the dark lacquer-like finish that signalled married status. Itinerant peddlers supplied the materials, often working their rounds through residential districts where the dye was reapplied at regular intervals to maintain the colour. The role of a peddler of ohaguro was thus a vehicle for an onnagata to display a cross-class theatrical type - a working-class woman in everyday dress and shouldered carrying-pole - distinct from the high-fashion courtesan and household lady roles that constituted the bulk of the female-role repertoire. The cross-dressed performance of working-class femininity was a recurring theatrical conceit that drew on the long Edo tradition of comic role-types and supplied the onnagata with vehicles for character work beyond the elegant high-fashion ideal. The hosoban urushi-e medium - lacquer print on a narrow vertical sheet - was the standard Torii-school actor-print format of the period. The Art Institute of Chicago dates this print to circa 1727, well after the death of Kiyomasu I, confirming the attribution to Kiyomasu II. Held at the Art Institute of Chicago.