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.
Onoe Baiko appears as Masaoka in this October 1990 woodblock print. Masaoka is the nurse (menoto) in the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi, a woman who must watch helplessly as her own child is killed in place of the young lord she protects — one of kabuki's most wrenching scenes of maternal sacrifice. The role demands an onnagata who can project both outer composure (she cannot reveal her anguish without exposing the substitution) and volcanic inner grief. Baiko, heir to a distinguished kabuki lineage, brought restrained intensity to such roles. Kokei's print focuses on the face — the still surface that conceals catastrophic loss.
歌舞伎
Woodblock print
1955
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
Onoe Baiko as Masaoka was created by Tsuruya Kokei (弦屋光溪) in Oct. 1990.
Onoe Baiko as Masaoka depicts kabuki.
