yakusha ehon　役者絵本

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. picture books illustrating actors. Books that bound together actor prints but also included theater and the stage scenes. A famous early example of this type of picture book, dated 1639 and attributed to Torii Kiyonobu 鳥居清信 (1664-1729), is entitled Kokon Shibai Irokurabe Hyakunin-isshu 古今四場居色競百人一首 (Beauty Contest of One Hundred Actors of All Ages). Yet it was really the popularity of the 1770 picture book of actor portraits entitled Ehon Butai Ougi 絵本舞台扇 (Picture Book of Stage Scenes in Fan Format) jointly produced by Ippitsusai Bunchou 一筆斎文調(act. 1760-1800) and Katsukawa Shunshou 勝川春章 (1726-1792) which represented the catalyst for the expansion of the genre. In the Kyoto and Osaka regions, Nichousai's 耳鳥斎 work of 1780 entitled Ehon Mizu ya Sora 絵本水や空 (Picture Book of Water and Sky), and Suifutei's 翠斧亭 work of 1782 entitled Suifutei gigafu 翠斧亭戯画譜 (Suifutei's Caricature Book) were the prototypes of that area's characteristic actor picture books known as kamigata yakusha ehon 上方役者絵本. Early yakusha ehon represented actors on stage or dressed in costumes, but later, as the popularity of theatre itself and curiosity about individual actors increased, prints depicted actors off-stage in genre settings and back-stage. They also illustrated the inner workings of the theater itself; for example, Shunshou's Yakusha natsu no Fuji 役者夏の富士 of 1712 depicts actors off-stage and Shoukousai Hanbee's 松好斎半兵衛 Gijougakuya zue 戯場楽屋図会 of 1800 illustrates all aspects of the theater.

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