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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.