Dancing at the New Carlton Café in Shanghai
- Date:
- 1924
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper with mica
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 39.7 × 27.2 cm
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
$2,000–$15,000. Common subjects: $2,000–$5,000. Key value factors: Yamamura's Art Deco-influenced designs are particularly sought after. Kabuki actor prints and bold modern compositions command the highest prices.
Created in 1924, this print marks a departure from Toyonari's usual kabuki subjects. The scene depicts couples dancing at the New Carlton Cafe in Shanghai, a cosmopolitan nightlife venue that symbolized the era's internationalism. The ink, color, and mica woodblock technique on [oban](/glossary/oban) paper gives the scene a glamorous shimmer appropriate to its subject. Western-style ballroom dancing had become fashionable in East Asian port cities, and Toyonari captures the swirl of modern social life with figures in Western evening dress moving across a dance floor. The mica ground adds an atmospheric sparkle suggesting electric light. This print belongs to a small group of works in which Toyonari turned his eye to contemporary urban life beyond Japan, recording the transnational cultural exchanges of the 1920s with the same observational precision he brought to kabuki portraiture.
1919
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Woodblock print
1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper with mica
1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper with nikawa and embossing
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Dancing at the New Carlton Café in Shanghai was created by Yamamura Toyonari (山村豊成) in 1924.
Dancing at the New Carlton Café in Shanghai was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1924).
Dancing at the New Carlton Café in Shanghai depicts music.
Dancing at the New Carlton Café in Shanghai measures 39.7 × 27.2 cm (Oban format).
