Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Kazusa Akushichibyōe in Kagekiyo, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban)
歌舞伎十八番 景清
- Date:
- 1895
- Medium:
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
歌舞伎十八番 景清
Kazusa Akushichibyōe (also rendered Akushichibei), the warrior-villain of the late-Heian Taira clan whose epic feud with the rival Minamoto supplied medieval Japanese literature with one of its central tragic plots, is shown here by Torii Kiyosada as performed by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX in Kagekiyo. Kagekiyo is one of the canonical eighteen Ichikawa-family plays, dramatising the post-war fate of the Taira warrior Akushichibyōe (here under the variant name Kazusa Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo), who survives the destruction of his clan at Dan-no-Ura and continues a final, doomed campaign of resistance against the victorious Minamoto. The role demands the controlled tragic bravura that defined the Ichikawa-family aragoto repertoire in its more sombre register: a warrior confronting his own historical defeat, sustained through pose, monologue, and the visual signature of his disheveled hair and battered armour. The play had been codified within the Kabuki Jūhachi-ban by Ichikawa Danjūrō VII in 1832 and remained a regular part of the Ichikawa repertoire into the modern era. Kiyosada's 1895 design - issued in the first year of his eighteen-print series jointly with his son Torii Kiyotada VII - preserves the costume and staging of the role as Danjūrō IX performed it. The print is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which preserves the most complete extant institutional set of the series.
歌舞伎十八番 毛抜
1895
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
大江戸しばゐねんぢうぎやうじ 猿若狂言
1897
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
歌舞伎十八番 目録
1895
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
歌舞伎十八番 勧進帳
1896
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Kazusa Akushichibyōe in Kagekiyo, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban) (歌舞伎十八番 景清) was created by Torii Kiyosada (鳥居清貞) in 1895.