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- Convenors:
-
Annegret Bergmann
(Ritsumeikan University)
Ryo Akama (Ritsumeikan University)
Ayaka Murashima (Meiji University)
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- Chair:
-
Annegret Bergmann
(Ritsumeikan University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Performing Arts
- Location:
- Lokaal 5.50
- Sessions:
- Sunday 20 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
The panel examines actor prints and theatre photography from the end of the Edo to the Taishō period. By examples of specific print artists, depicted roles and actors, it examines the iconographic records of prints and photographs in order to trace the changes in kabuki during these periods.
Long Abstract:
In the course of modernization and westernization in Japan since the Meiji period, major changes have taken place in performance practice and play content of kabuki. Furthermore, the proliferation of photography in Japan resulted in a shift from woodblock prints towards the new media of photography as a means of theatre promotion. Taking into account the premise that neither actor prints nor photographs are direct historical documents but rather media representations filtered by the painter or photographer, the panel addresses the iconological potential of theatre woodblock prints and photographs that will be examined for their iconographic record in order to trace the developments in kabuki from the end of the Edo to the Taishō periods.
The first paper discusses the changes in the way kabuki was depicted in ukiyoe from the end of the Edo to the Meiji period. Along with changes in acting styles during the Meiji period, the depiction methods of ukiyoe artists like Toyohara Kunichika or Utagawa Hōsai, which seem to have been influenced by photography, changed. Important characteristics of yakusha-e such as diversity in composition and in the narratives illustrated diminished and caused the ceding of the prints' role as a visual medium to that of photography.
Using photographs of actors in the role of Nikki Danjō in the play Meiboku Sendai Hagi taken in the Meiji and Taishō periods, the second paper demonstrates that these photos represent a clear departure from the pictorial aesthetic of Edo period prints that had excluded the psychological and emotional status of an actor. In the course of time photographs clearly showed these elements and therefore also reflect the shifts from mere formal expressions to emotionally lead acting in kabuki.
The last paper deals with the pictorial visualization of the actor Ichikawa Sadanji II starring in shin kabuki, traditional aragoto as well as in western plays, and elucidates the mutual influence between the global effect of and the local result of theatre photography in kabuki. It concludes that iconographic star actor prints lived on well into the 1920s when traditional ukiyoe had long been declared dead.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Sunday 20 August, 2023, -Ryo Akama (Ritsumeikan University)
Paper short abstract:
Actor prints since the Edo period became rigid in their methods of expression as kabuki changed during the Meiji period. The Ukiyo-e artist became unable to depict the pictorial aesthetic important in kabuki. I focus on the process of this change, which seems to have been influenced by photography.
Paper long abstract:
In this presentation, I will firstly describe the potential of this panel’s theme in the future to explain the relevance of this field of research. I will report on the current ongoing rapid digitization and online availability of visual media within archives hosting material of the Meiji- and Taishō-period kabuki. These archives open up this field of research not only to local researchers who can access the theatrical material archives on site, but to the worldwide academic community.
Secondly, the aim of this paper is to describe specifically how actor prints, which played a leading role in the visual documentation of kabuki performances until the end of the Edo period, changed following the Meiji Restoration, and came to disappear in the end of Meiji period. In its compositions actor prints depict the pictorial aesthetic that are characteristic of kabuki. After the Meiji Restoration, as Western culture entered into social customs and lifestyles, kabuki performances themselves underwent major changes. New methods were proposed for actors’ performances and expressions, as symbolized by the attempts by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX to act in a more naturalistic and realistic way. In line with this change, the perspective from which Ukiyo-e artists depicted actors had to change as well. This change seemed to be inevitable, as the role of visual documentation of kabuki was transferred from actor prints, in which even what had not been shown on stage had been expressed on the pictorial plane, to the new technology of photography, which came from the West. I will present concrete examples of the changes by using examples of Meiji actor prints by Toyohara Kunichika and Utagawa Hōsai and describe the process by which the role of this media in kabuki was gradually transferred to photography.
Ayaka Murashima (Meiji University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper elucidates the changes in the composition and content of kabuki photographs since its introduction to the 1920s. These shifts provide insights into kabuki's transformations since the Meiji Restoration, as well as the changing expectations of the audience in this genre.
Paper long abstract:
This paper elucidates how the composition and content of kabuki photographs have changed by taking three photographs of actors in the role of Nikki Danjō, a villain in the popular play “Meiboku sendai hagi” (The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai) that were taken from the end of the Edo to the Taishō period as examples. This also brings to light how kabuki acting changed from the viewpoints of actors and spectators.
The photo of Onoe Kikugorō V’s Nikki Danjō (1868) taken at the end of the Edo period shows his entire body in a simple pose. However, the photo of Ichikawa Danzō VII (1908) in the same role taken around the end of the Meiji era, is a close-up photo similar to the ōkibu-e style in Ukiyo-e prints whereas the photograph of Nakamura Kichiemon I taken in 1923 concentrates on the fierceness and fury expressed by the actor as Nikki Danjō being in a desperate rage. This photo demonstrates a departure from the “pictorial” aesthetic of Edo period prints that had excluded the psychological and emotional status of an actor in his role. These emotions are clearly expressed in this photograph.
Advances in the art of photography as well as changes in the subject matter featured in kabuki plays due to its modernization have contributed to this transition. In the Meiji period, kabuki was influenced by Western theatre and literature changing themes, performances and acting. In the course of time, photographs mirror the shifts from mere formal expressions to emotionally lead acting in kabuki. By tracking the changes in the photos of kabuki actors, it is not only possible to decipher how kabuki has changed since the Meiji Restoration, but also how the expectations of the audience in this genre had changed.
Annegret Bergmann (Ritsumeikan University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper traces the shift in paradigms in visual media depicting kabuki theatre by examining woodblock prints and photos of Ichikawa Sadanji II that also reflect the actor’s drifting between modern Western and traditional Eastern trends on stage during the first decades of the 20th century.
Paper long abstract:
This paper deals with the shift in paradigms in visual media depicting kabuki theatre as a local narration embedded in the global development of theatre photography. The shift from woodblock print to photography and their mutual influence reflect developments in kabuki against a modernizing and westernizing society as a result of the Meiji restauration. These changes will be traced by examining woodblock prints and photos of Ichikawa Sadanji II, an actor drifting between modern Western and traditional Eastern trends on stage during the first decades of the 20th century.
The actor had not only been keen on modernizing kabuki production structures but also its contents by staging newly written shin kabuki as well as Shakespeare plays in his Meijiza in 1908. He also engaged himself in the revival of kabuki classics of the Kabuki jūhachiban (Eighteen Best Kabuki Plays) compilated during the Edo period, like Kenuki (Tweezers) in 1909, and played the title role John Gabriel Borkman in the first performance by the Jiyū Gekijō company that experimented in adapting western drama to the Japanese stage.
Focusing on the pictorial visualization of Sadanji II starring in experimental and innovative plays in shin kabuki, traditional aragoto as well as in western plays by Ibsen and others, the paper elucidates the potential of these material to trace changes in theatre as well as to show the relationship between the global effect and the local result of theatre photography. Furthermore, it shows the mutual influence of theatre photography and actors prints, especially in the new prints (shin hanga) in terms of rendering the subjects, their framing and perspective and concludes that iconic prints of star actors lived on well into the 1920s alongside star photography, when traditional ukiyoe had long been declared dead, a fact that once again illustrates the close connection between theatre and woodblock prints reflecting the kabuki trends of its time.