Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Musashibō Benkei in Kanjinchō, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban)
歌舞伎十八番 勧進帳
- Date:
- 1896
- Medium:
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
歌舞伎十八番 勧進帳
Musashibō Benkei, the warrior-monk of medieval legend who served Minamoto no Yoshitsune through the late twelfth-century war against the Taira clan, is shown here as performed by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX in Kanjinchō ('The Subscription Book') - one of the most celebrated of all kabuki plays and a centrepiece of the Kabuki Jūhachi-ban. The play, adapted from the no theatre original Ataka, dramatises the dangerous passage of the disgraced Yoshitsune and his loyal retainer Benkei through the barrier-checkpoint at Ataka, where Benkei (disguised as the leader of a group of itinerant monks soliciting alms) must improvise a fake fundraising subscription book from a blank scroll and physically beat his disguised master Yoshitsune to convince the suspicious barrier-keeper of their identities. The role of Benkei is one of the greatest aragoto parts in all of kabuki, demanding sustained tonal range from sacred dignity through fierce intimidation to the wrenching moment of striking his own master. Ichikawa Danjūrō IX's interpretation of the role was widely held to be the definitive late-Meiji performance, and Kiyosada's 1896 print preserves the costume and staging of his Benkei in the Torii school's bold-contour vocabulary. The play had been the centrepiece of the official 1832 Kabuki Jūhachi-ban codification and remained the single most-staged piece of the Ichikawa canon into the modern era. The print is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of its complete set of the Kabuki Jūhachi-ban series, which constitutes the principal extant institutional holding of this culminating late-Torii project.
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 暫
1895
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as Musashibō Benkei in Kanjinchō, from the series The Eighteen Great Kabuki Plays (Kabuki Jūhachi-ban) (歌舞伎十八番 勧進帳) was created by Torii Kiyosada (鳥居清貞) in 1896.