[Famous heroes of the kabuki stage played by frogs] – Historic Reproduction
![[Famous heroes of the kabuki stage played by frogs] — historic print](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/ca/ca372d87a9c5-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Few images capture their era like this historic print of [Famous heroes of the kabuki stage played by frogs]. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. It brings character to any room and makes a memorable gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.
[Famous heroes of the kabuki stage played by frogs]
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Frogs take the leading roles in this color woodcut, with amphibians dressed in the flamboyant robes and painted faces of kabuki's celebrated heroes. Animal parodies like this were a playful staple of Japanese woodblock printing, and by the mid-1870s, early in the Meiji period, Japan was changing rapidly while the theater and its popular images remained hugely popular. Kabuki's bold face paint, known as kumadori, and its dramatic held poses, called mie, made the stage an easy target for caricature, so audiences would have recognized the joke at once. The humor lies in the details, as each frog mimics the costume and gesture of a familiar actor.
| Medium | 1 print : woodcut, color. |
|---|---|
| Genre | dreams and substances |
| Notes | [ca. 1875] |
| Subjects | Frogs--Japan--1870-1880. Kabuki--Japan--1870-1880. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 3,816 × 4,740 px · prints to 13 × 16 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-222114 |
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