Ehon butai ōgi 絵本舞台扇

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Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

Katsukawa Shunshō, a talented painter and designer of prints and printed books, trained a group of students who specialized in theatrical images of popular kabuki actors in Edo. Shunshō and his studio designed actor prints in the early period of color printing. Their illustrations of actors departed from the highly stylized and relatively undifferentiated images that focused on action and flamboyant costume, which were popular at the time. Instead, they produced distinctive portraits that captured the individuality of each actor and the memorable nuances he brought to his performance of a specific role.

Prints in the shape of a folding fan were popular among kabuki enthusiasts. Single-sheet prints were issued specifically to be cut out and mounted on a fan frame for personal display and use. Few mounted fans and unmounted fan prints survive. The demand for such prints was high, however, and the Katsukawa studio would likely have produced them.

The well-preserved three-volume Ehon butai ōgi in the Pulverer collection is an outstanding example of the collaboration between Shunshō and his pupil Bunchō. A seal identifies the artist of each fan. The portraits, designed to confront each other on facing pairs of pages, range from delicate onnagata actors in female roles to robust warriors about to do battle. This set of three volumes displays exceptional color preservation, including the light blue-gray backgrounds printed with dayflower, an organic pigment. The backstage scene near the beginning of volume one, as well as the ceremonious introduction and closing of the three-volume set by actors onstage, convey the realistic impression of the theater that the Katsukawa artists knew intimately.

Selected reading:

Timothy T. Clark and Osamu Ueda with Donald Jenkins, The Actor’s Image: Print Makers of the Katsukawa School (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994).