Key value factors: For living or recently deceased artists, limited edition size and gallery representation drive value. Signed and numbered prints from smaller editions are most desirable.
Nakamura Kichiemon in a Role (1990) presents the great kabuki actor in an unspecified part, the ambiguity of the title focusing attention on the actor's presence rather than a particular character. Kichiemon II was celebrated for inhabiting roles so completely that his personality seemed to dissolve into the character, yet here Kokei records something that transcends any single role — the physical authority, the concentrated intelligence, and the weight of decades of performance experience visible in the actor's bearing. This woodblock print functions almost as a portrait of the art of kabuki acting itself, channeled through one of its most accomplished modern practitioners.
歌舞伎
Woodblock print
1955
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
Nakamura Kichiemon in a Role was created by Tsuruya Kokei (弦屋光溪) in 1990.
Nakamura Kichiemon in a Role depicts kabuki.
