This picture from the Worcester Art Museum; "It is the only complete impression of the first single-sheet print by Kiyonobu, the founder of the Torii school, which specialized in depictions of the Kabuki theater."

©Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. All Rights Reserved

Amanda Tyska
Tanabata Dancer, Print 062

The Torii school of ukiyo-e truly came into fruition at the hands of Torii Kiyonobu during the Edo period in the early 1700s. Originating in Osaka as the son of actor Torii Kiyomoto, the Torii’s business was closely linked with Kabuki theater, producing sign posts, flyers, illustration books, and other promotional paraphernalia( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii_school ). Studying under Yoshida Hanbei and Hishikawa Moronobu, Kiyonobu brought the emphasis on action poses and other aesthetic qualities to the already energetic styles. The soft, rounded style, even as Kiyonobu moved to Edo, remained in the work as shadows of his artistic origins in the wagata Kabuki style of the Kansai region ( http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Japanese/1901.59.html ). Kiyonobu II, of the same school, has near identical style which often makes it difficult to differentiate unless the date it made clear. Fortunately, the subject matter of this print and the month and year in which it was produced are known, and confirm it as a product of the first Koyonobu.

This particular print, while the title is unknown, is of a particularly famous Kabuki onnagata, a male actor who portrays female characters on stage. Sawamura Kodenji, depicted here in the role of Tsuyu no Mae in the play Kanto Koroku in 1698, had his career take off in 1693 when he first began performing as an onnagata, moving to the capitol only a year later. There were even rumors circulated about expressions of his supposed femininity offstage, coming naturally to him when he was fatigued. Aside from usual performances which usually focus on one star onnagata, Sawamura is also famous for forming a trio with two other famous onnagata of the time, Iwai Sagenta and Hayakawa Hatsuse (http://www.kabuki21.com/kodenji1.php).

The performance depicted in this print was held at the Nakamuraza theatre in the month of May, but unfortunately little information is available about the play itself. The title Kanto Koroku has appeared translated as “The Singer of Ballads,” though it is difficult to follow where the translation derives from. (http://www.davisart.com/portal/dai/DAIDefault.aspx?curPage=ProductDetails&ProductID=113371).While the story behind the play and the role of Tsuyu no Mae, the character depicted, remain elusive, there are hints left behind in the print itself. Over Sawamura’s shoulder, the audience can see small strips of paper attached to the branch that are clearly signifiers of the Tanabata holiday, marking the season as summer and allowing the safe assumption that Holiday plays a significant part in the plot of the play. The Tanabata holiday’s mythology is a love story, wherein the two romantic characters in question can only meet once a year. The female character in the mythology, however, is named Orihime, not Tsuyu no Mae, which suggests the play is not depicting the actual story of the Tanabata tradition. There is, however, a second, less-common story associated with Tanabata, also romantic in nature, involving a goddess that descends from the heavens and loses her robe of feathers, and her divinity along with it. Another print in the collection of the Berman Museum (I will go back and check the name later) depicts one of these legends of the divine woman with her robe of feathers, and also displays her holding a fan-like pennant often carried by samurai. Sawamura’s character has these same pennants depicted on his character’s robe, which may suggest the play is a story revolving around this alternative mythology.

It is important to note that this print is not actually the completed print; there exists only one completed print of this image, and it is at the Worchester Museum of art. The completed print displays a temple in the background, and is colored. The print is already large in its incomplete version, and the full print has unusual dimensions, perhaps because it was created as an advertisement poster for the kabuki play that required it to be of that size. According to the Worchester Museum’s web site, the temple depicted in the background is the Tadasu shrine, which does not seem to exist as such with what information is available over the world wide web. There is a Tadasu forest in Kyoto associated with the Shimogamo Jinja, one of two shrines collectively known as the Kamo Shrines. The most probable conclusions are that the setting is near this shrine, and the name is taken from the Tadasu forest for the romantic associations from the name (often translated as the ‘Forest of truth’), the shrine no longer exists, or the shrine never did exist except as a concoction of the play and whatever story lies behind it.

While the completed print is colored with warm vegetable dyes of varying hues of yellow and orange, warm in tone, this one is left in black and white. Compositionally the eye follows the sweep of the robes up from the bottom left towards upper right, and arches, following the graze of Sawamura and the fall of the branch over his shoulder towards the left once more. The thick lines at the edge of his robes as well as those of the decorative pennants draw the eye, and two of the pennants creat a bow shape around a clearly depicted symbol on Sawamura’s sleeve, which defies the folds of the robe to maintain its perfect shape. The meaning behind this symbol, which is reminiscent of a sun, though it’s rays rounded like a flower, is unknown. Were the print indeed an advertisement as earlier suggested, it would make sense that it is perhaps a symbol of Nakamuraza Theatre where the play was preformed. Other prints depicting the theater, however, are abundant with a symbol that greater resembles and enclosed fleur de lis on a decorated clam shell. The symbol is directly in the center of the print, the motion swirling and falling around it as a wave. There are waves on this sleeve as well, though they do not flow consistent with the arch of the robes, and inside the waves are small, white birds. Had the birds been depicted differently, one could link them to crows which play an important part in the most common Tanabata story involving Orihime, but they fail to invoke any thoughts of crow-like qualities in the viewer, and in the original were colored a wamr orange-red, suggesting no connection.

There are several peculiar differences visable between the completed print and the one currently exhibited at the Berman museum; The shrine decor at the original, even when cut off, should come down and leave marks close to Sawamura's hat, which it clearly does not. This could perhaps be explained by the lines of the shrine and its surroundings having been painted on with the color. Even so, there is also a discrepancy at the bottom of the robe; the Berman print has a thick, bold line and textured portion, and the pennant to the most upper right hand corner's floral pattern on its handle is slightly off as well. The biggest unexplainable discrepancy, however, is Sawamura's foot. One can see quite clearly the absence of the raised foot in the original, and the differences in the flow and texture of the robes near it. The rope connected to the bottom pennant goes off of the pattern in the original, where as it appears complete in the Berman print. These discrepancies clearly call the authenticity of the print into question.