Utagawa Toyokuni
Japanese, 1769 - 1825Actor, 1830s
Not on view
Woodblock on paper
Dimensions14 5/8 × 10 5/16 in. (37.1 × 26.2 cm)
Gift of Grayce Scholt, 2007.63
There were two main approaches to portrayals of actors in nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock tradition: the parody or the inner view. The latter involved portraits of actors captured in character, while on stage. This scene appears to be the inner view, showing the actor in character as a warrior. Introspection and the psychology of the actor in character is evoked by the gate, which perhaps is more a metaphorical than actual passageway. At the height of their popularity kabuki theatres, which were usually located at the center of town, ran events all day long, creating districts of services from tea houses to restaurants that catered to the theater-goers. Kabuki was woven into the fabric of urban life.
