The Actor Nakamura Utaemon VI as Tonase in Kanadehon Chushingura / Okubi-e (Bust Portraits, Series IV)
- Date:
- March 1983
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- British Museum
Description
This March 1983 bust portrait from Kokei's fourth Okubi-e series shows Nakamura Utaemon VI as Tonase in Kanadehon Chushingura, the dramatized retelling of the forty-seven ronin vendetta that is kabuki's most performed play. Tonase is the wife of Honzo, a retainer who makes a fateful decision that entangles his family in the larger revenge plot. In Act IX, Tonase prepares to kill her own daughter in a desperate act of atonement — a scene of escalating horror that tests the onnagata's capacity for controlled emotional extremity. Kokei's bust portrait captures Utaemon's Tonase at close range, the face a study in dignified anguish, every line of the expression carved with the deliberation of the woodblock itself.
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Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Actor Nakamura Utaemon VI as Tonase in Kanadehon Chushingura / Okubi-e (Bust Portraits, Series IV) was created by Tsuruya Kokei (弦屋光溪) in March 1983.
The Actor Nakamura Utaemon VI as Tonase in Kanadehon Chushingura / Okubi-e (Bust Portraits, Series IV) depicts kabuki and portraits.