| How to
read an actor print
link to print
This print was issued commercially in the autumn of
1831. It is laden with visual and textual information for the viewer to
process. The following notes indicate some of the ways in which this
print would have been read when first offered for sale.
Inscriptions and marks
- The largest characters inscribed at the top right of
the print name the actor depicted: Ichikawa Danjuro VII, one
of the great exponents of heroic roles and the most popular of all
nineteenth-century actors.
To the right of his name in much smaller
characters is the name of the role in which he is depicted: that of
Matsuomaru, one of the heroes in the popular historical drama Sugawara
and the Secrets of Calligraphy. He performed the role in a revival
of the drama that opened at the Kawarazaki Theatre in Edo in 09.1831.
The two lines of cursive script to the left of the
actor’s name remind the viewer of two other heroic roles that
Danjuro had performed that season: Hyogonosuke in Yaguchi
Ferry Crossing and Kumagae Naozane in Chronicle of the Battle
of Ichinotani in performances at the Kawarazaki Theatre in the
fifth and seventh month of 1831 respectively.
The artist’s signature, Kunisada ga (drawn
by Kunisada), appears on the left edge of the print, written in
characters of modest size and followed by the red circular toshidama
seal used by artists of the Utagawa school.
The signature is balanced on the right edge of the
print by the censor’s seal and publisher’s mark, which are placed
just below Danjuro’s name. The publisher Sanoya Kihei
issued many of Kunisada’s actor prints in the late 1820s and the
1830s.
Above Danjuro’s head there is a poem of
his own composition printed from a block that reproduces his own
cursive script. It is signed and sealed ‘the seventh generation
Sansho’ (Sansho is the ‘poetry name’ used by bearers
of the Danjuro stage name.) The poem with its dense word
play and multiple levels of meaning would have teased and delighted
Danjuro’s fans, many of whom would also have been amateur
poets. Only a few of the puns and allusions can be hinted at here.
Migawari mo
kore de sando ya
Shimosa guri
Here I am, for the third time,
with a changed appearance,
Like a chestnut from Shimosa!
- The place, Shimosa, in the last
line of the poem is the name of the province in which the first
actor to bear the Danjuro name was born in the
seventeenth century. His successors made pilgrimages to his
birthplace there to honour his memory.
- The phrase Shimosa guri (‘Chestnuts
from Shimosa’) asks the reader to compare the fuzzy-haired
appearance of Danjuro as depicted here with a bristly
chestnut from Shimosa.
- There is also a verbal pun in sando (‘third
time’) and guri (‘chestnut’): Sando guri is a type of
chestnut that bears fruit three times a year.
- Sando (‘third time’) appears in the phrase
‘…for a third time/with a changed appearance’. This refers
to the three roles that Danjuro performed that season,
all of which are named on the print.
Image
Make-up and costume indicate that
Danjuro is shown in a scene in the fourth act of the play
entitled ‘The Village Schoolroom’ (Terakoya).
Matsuomaru makes his entrance in this scene in a
palanquin feigning illness. His unshaved forehead, unruly hair and
purple headband tied on the left side of his head to bring relief from
headache, all lend credence to his claim that he is ill and at the
same time indicate to the viewer that he is in a state of extreme
nervous tension.
On stage, the costume worn by
Danjuro VII in this scene would have been decorated with the
branches of a snow-laden pine. The snow-covered pine branches (matsu)
were meant not only to recall the character’s name, Matsuomaru,
but also—through their literary associations—to emphasise his
tragic fate and heroic nature (his triplet brothers were named after
the plum, Umeomaru, and cherry, Sakuramaru). In this
print, Kunisada chose to depart from stage convention and depict the
hero in a heavy overcoat decorated with roused dragons, beasts
associated with great strength and nobility. The dragons serve to
amplify the force of Danjuro’s VII’s pose and reflect
the dreadful conflict of emotions within his loyal heart.
Although he is in the employ of the villain of the piece,
Matsuomaru remains loyal to his true lord, Kan Shojo. The
villain ordered the murder of Kan Shojo’s young son and
heir, Kan Shusai. He commanded Matsuomaro to accompany the
party of officers sent to capture and kill the boy because he was the
only person in his retinue who could identify the boy with certainty.
Matsuomaru contrived to have his own son killed in place of Kan
Shusai. His son is murdered off stage; it takes all his will to
retain his composure at the muffled sound of the deathblow. His son’s
severed head is then brought on stage in a box and laid before him. He
opens the box, gazes on his son’s head, and with complete self-control
announces, ‘Ah, that he has beheaded Kan Shusai….there can be
no doubt, no question.’ Kunisada has depicted Danjuro as
Matsuomaru at this dreadful moment. We see the actor portraying
Matsuomaru’s pain as he is caught between his personal, paternal
feelings and the merciless demands made by the code of loyalty that
bound him to his lord. His excruciating inner struggle is expressed by
the way the actor clenches his fist, grits his teeth and crosses his
eyes. The hero must, without hesitation, fulfil his obligations to his
lord no matter what the personal cost. This grim scene is regarded as
one of the weightiest in all Kabuki for male-role actors.
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