Reminiscences of Elegant Actors (Fuga wazaogi shinobu)
Fuga wazaogi shinobu
About This Series
"Reminiscences of Elegant Actors" (Fuga wazaogi shinobu) is one of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's yakusha-e series, a project of actor portraiture that pays homage to the leading performers of the late Edo and early Meiji kabuki stage. The title's vocabulary, with the word shinobu (to remember, to look back on) explicitly framing the series as a nostalgic survey, indicates that Yoshitoshi conceived the project as a commemorative cycle rather than as a documentary record of current performances: the actors depicted include figures of the previous generation alongside still-active stars, and the prints are inscribed with role and biographical information that situates each actor within the longer history of the Edo and Tokyo theatre. Yoshitoshi was never primarily a yakusha-e specialist in the manner of Kunichika or Kunisada, but he produced a steady stream of theatre prints throughout his career, and his actor portraits of the 1880s share the careful psychological observation and pictorial restraint that distinguish his late bijin-ga and historical work. The series is generally dated to the mid-1880s and is issued in oban tate-e format. It belongs to a moment when the kabuki print industry of the early Meiji period was beginning to give way to photography and to the new colour lithography, and Yoshitoshi's contribution can be understood as part of the broader cultural project of preserving the visual memory of late Edo theatre at the very end of its print-culture phase. Impressions are catalogued in the Yoshitoshi holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the British Museum, and the series is mentioned in Stevenson's checklists of the artist's late yakusha-e output.
Prints in This Series (2)
Frequently Asked Questions
"Reminiscences of Elegant Actors" (Fuga wazaogi shinobu) is one of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's yakusha-e series, a project of actor portraiture that pays homage to the leading performers of the late Edo and early Meiji kabuki stage. The title's vocabulary, with the word shinobu (to remember, to look back on) explicitly framing the series as a nostalgic survey, indicates that Yoshitoshi conceived the project as a commemorative cycle rather than as a documentary record of current performances: the actors depicted include figures of the previous generation alongside still-active stars, and the prints are inscribed with role and biographical information that situates each actor within the longer history of the Edo and Tokyo theatre. Yoshitoshi was never primarily a yakusha-e specialist in the manner of Kunichika or Kunisada, but he produced a steady stream of theatre prints throughout his career, and his actor portraits of the 1880s share the careful psychological observation and pictorial restraint that distinguish his late bijin-ga and historical work. The series is generally dated to the mid-1880s and is issued in oban tate-e format. It belongs to a moment when the kabuki print industry of the early Meiji period was beginning to give way to photography and to the new colour lithography, and Yoshitoshi's contribution can be understood as part of the broader cultural project of preserving the visual memory of late Edo theatre at the very end of its print-culture phase. Impressions are catalogued in the Yoshitoshi holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the British Museum, and the series is mentioned in Stevenson's checklists of the artist's late yakusha-e output.
The Reminiscences of Elegant Actors (Fuga wazaogi shinobu) series contains 2 prints, created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
The Reminiscences of Elegant Actors (Fuga wazaogi shinobu) series was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).
We currently have 2 of 2 known prints from the Reminiscences of Elegant Actors (Fuga wazaogi shinobu) series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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