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Ichieisai Yoshitsuya I (?)
Japanese, 1822-1866
Scene from a Kabuki Play, ca. 1866?
Published by Oshimaya Sayemon (?)
With censor's aratame seal
incorporated with date seal
Nishki-e (color woodblock print)
Oban format
Museum Collection
There were two Yoshitsuyas. Yoshitsuya I was, like Yoshitoshi,
the pupil of the strenuously and sometimes militantly
imaginative Kuniyoshi. In this richly enigmatic print, a
triumphant and perhaps supernatural being bestrides a fallen
male warrior, whose dress and contorted posture make him look
like an anxious spider. Spider-spirits are a part
of Japanese legend and are usually evil. Perhaps related to the
Shinto aspect of Japan, spirits saturate Japanese culture, a
transitional dimension between the human and the natural worlds,
or between the human and heavenly worlds. Japanese prints fuse
design and meaning. In the work of Kuniyoshi and his students,
this exuberant fusion of spiraling patterns may result in a
compacted magic and beauty.
The ambiguity of gender in this print is not unheard of on the Kabuki
stage or in Japanese prints.
Such ambiguity sustains the theme of this exhibition. The hand gesture
of the standing figure
is a mudra signifying a magical transformation.
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