The Actor Totsuben In The Role Of Teranishi Kanjin

Object NameWoodcut

Artist / Maker Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1754 - 1861)

Date1815-1842

MediumColor woodcut

Dimensions14 3/16 × 9 1/8 in. (36 × 23.2 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of Joanna M. Hansen. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM82.85

Status

Not on view

Collections

Works of Art on Paper & Photography

CultureJapanese

Label TextThe quintessential Japanese woodblock print in the mind's eye of many depicts a kabuki theater actor in a dramatic pose. Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theater that developed in the Edo period along with ukiyo-e. This theatrical form was the popular culture of the townspeople, not of the aristocratic classes. Plays were about historical conflicts; moral dilemmas, particularly in affairs of the heart; class conflict; domestic drama and other typically human concerns (regardless of culture). During kabuki plays, then and now, fanatic fans in the audience occasionally shouted out the names of famous actors at just the right pause in the dialog, which is not a common phenomenon during theater performances in the West. However, there is a great similarity to the audience reaction to cult cinema. Ukiyo-e prints depicting famous actors were the rock star posters of their day. The rigid social order maintained under the Tokogawa Shoguns restricted the social outlets of the merchant class despite its ever growing economic power, thereby unintentionally encouraging the "wine, women, and song" attitudes of the pleasure quarters. While intimately connected to the "floating world" of the theater and geisha houses and depicting the personalities and pursuits of that world, ukiyo-e over time also began to reflect the broader world in which the Japanese lived. These Japanese landscapes were simultaneously realistic and symbolic, reflecting the physical lushness of Japan as well as denoting social values.

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