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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles] – Historic Photograph Print

[Portraits of actors, often playing roles], [between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)] — historic print
[Portraits of actors, often playing roles], [between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)]. Historic print from the Japanese Prints collection.

(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

This rare historic print captures [Portraits of actors, often playing roles] in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles]

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Twenty ōban sheets, mounted as a single scroll, set this group apart, and many of the portraits show the kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan (1831–1899) in character. Three designers made the sheets in the early 1860s: Utagawa Toyokuni (also known as Kunisada), Toyohara Kunichika, and Utagawa Kuniaki. They printed in nishiki-e, or brocade print, a polychrome woodblock method. Actor portraits like these were a major commercial genre in late Edo Japan, bought by theatergoers who wanted likenesses of favorite performers in famous roles. The bold colors and dramatic poses show how the prints captured the theatrical flair of the period.

Created / published[between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)]
Medium20 prints (mounted on scroll) : woodcut, color.
Genreorganized by the Library of Congress, 2001.
NotesTitle and other information based on entry in exhibition catalog. Artists include Utagawa Toyokuni (also known as Utagawa Kunisada) (sheets 8-10, 14-16, 20); Toyohara Kunichika (sheets 1, 2, 4, 5, 11-13, 17-19); and Utagawa Kuniaki (sheets 3, 6). Artist for sheet 7 not yet identified. Nishike-e (brocade) print. Ōban size. Forms part of: Japanese prints and drawings (Library of Congress). Four sheets (7, 9, 13, and 20) Published in: The Floating world of Ukiyo-e ... / essays by Sandy Kita .... New York ..., 2001, no. 109, pp. 174-75. Exhibited: The Floating world of Ukiyo-e: shadows
SubjectsShikan, Nakamura,--1831-1899. Actors--Japanese--1850-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan4,555 × 3,669 px · prints to 15 × 12 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-222077

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