Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Kumedera Danjō in Kenuki, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban)
歌舞伎十八番 毛抜
- Date:
- 1895
- Medium:
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
歌舞伎十八番 毛抜
Ichikawa Danjūrō IX appears here in the role of the loyal retainer Kumedera Danjō from Kenuki ('The Tweezers'), one of the canonical eighteen Ichikawa-family plays. Kenuki, originally composed in 1742 and codified within the Kabuki Jūhachi-ban by Ichikawa Danjūrō VII in 1832, dramatises the discovery and exposure of a court conspiracy through the device of a magnetised hair-pulling tweezer that levitates on its own - the comic-supernatural premise that allows the loyal retainer Danjō to deduce that the household's heiress, whose hair stands on end at the approach of metal, is being slowly poisoned by hidden iron pins. The role of Danjō, a typical Ichikawa-family aragoto vehicle, requires the broad gestures, exaggerated stance, and bombastic delivery for which the Ichikawa house had been famous since its founder Ichikawa Danjūrō I established the aragoto style in the late seventeenth century. Kiyosada's design preserves the late-Meiji costuming and staging of the role as Danjūrō IX performed it - a documentary value that increases as the kabuki repertoire continues to evolve and the specific late-nineteenth-century interpretations recede further into the past. The print is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of its complete set of the Kabuki Jūhachi-ban series. The Torii school's house style - bold contour line, full-length standing figure, restrained but precisely registered colour - remains entirely legible despite the elaborate polychrome capabilities of late Meiji woodblock printing, signalling Kiyosada's commitment to the family visual tradition.
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
歌舞伎十八番 暫
1895
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Kumedera Danjō in Kenuki, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban) (歌舞伎十八番 毛抜) was created by Torii Kiyosada (鳥居清貞) in 1895.