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Your galleryThe Actor Sanjo Kantaro II as Oshichi in the play "Nanakusa Fukki Soga," performed at the Ichimura Theater in the first month, 1718
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Find the open booklet in the actor’s hands and the large round crests on the black robe, then compare the orange-red laid on by hand with the printed black lines.
The kabuki actor Sanjō Kantarō II appears as Oshichi in a play staged at the Ichimura Theater in the first month of 1718. Women were barred by law from the kabuki stage, so men played its heroines. In the story, Oshichi fell in love with a temple attendant while fleeing a fire in 1682, and later set a fire hoping to meet him again.
Hand-colored woodblock print; o-oban, tan-e · 54.7 × 31.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Actor Sanjo Kantaro II as Oshichi in the play "Nanakusa Fukki Soga," performed at the Ichimura Theater in the first month, 1718
- Artist
- Torii Kiyonobu I Japanese, 1664-1729
- Date
- 1718
- Medium
- Hand-colored woodblock print; o-oban, tan-e
- Dimensions
- 54.7 × 31.2 cm (21 1/2 × 12 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.