A Kabuki Actor's Ukiyo-e

Actor Onoe Matsusuke II, by Utagawa Toyokuni ©Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. All Rights Reserved.

Sorry about not getting this up sooner. I’ve been knocked off my feet from a stomach bug since Tuesday and the last thing my body wanted to understand was that this was important to get up on the internet. On the plus side, my hair has never been more fabulously smooth, shiny, and silky before.

The first thing that drew me towards this print was the position of the Kabuki actor. Onoe Matsusuke, the actor, is standing in a typical mie pose, which would be done for an exaggerated affect to raise the audience’s participation in the play. Also, the way the artist, Utagawa Toyokuni, has positioned him, it is almost impossible to not focus on anything but the character and the rats at his feet, perhaps because there seems to be three levels to this print, created by the black color.

The first is the hair of the actor, then the sash, and finally, the rats at the feet of Onoe Matsusuke. However, the middle level isn’t quite as prominent as the other two levels, mainly because I think that the artist wanted the main focus of the print to be on the actor’s face and the rats at his feet. I find it interesting that Toyokuni chose to use only three colors in the print. The orange color of Matsusuke’s garment makes the character/actor look more intimidating, adding a sort of visual effect that tricks the eyes in to thinking he is much larger than normal. The fact that he seems to be towering over the rats at his feet adds to that illusion as well.

Speaking of the rats, I was intrigued to find out what they could have symbolized in the play that Matsusuke was acting in, and why Toyokuni chose to do this scene for a print rather than another. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find the name of the Kabuki play, so I searched for rats in Japanese culture and their symbolism. I already had somewhat of an idea of what to expect, since one of my favorite books talks briefly touches the subject of rats in Japanese society, saying how if you managed to kill a rat and brought the tail in you were paid money for it.

I never expected though, that rats were considered lucky. Only the white rats though, as they were considered the messengers of the god of luck in Japan, Daikoku, and representing wealth. Perhaps that is why the character Matsusuke plays is angry at the rats at his feet. Maybe the character has had a bout of bad luck, because the rats at his feet are black. Or, I could just be reading too much in to it and Toyokuni decided to make the rats black because they were black in the play and there wasn’t any symbolic meaning to having them that color. According to an MIT page, Toyokuni once said that his prints were just merely prints. Proof that I may just be making something out of nothing.

Toyokuni, by the way, seems to be a big fanboy of Matsusuke. Of course, I suppose that’s understandable because Onoe Matsusuke did excel in his art – he could quickly change costumes, allowing him to play up to nine characters in any play, and specialized in playing adolescent men as well as wise, older males. Toyokuni has done several prints of him, and all seem to show him in that fierce sort of way. Except for one that I have found, where Matsusuke is acting as an onnagata – even then, Matsusuke still looks like he wants to bite someone’s head off. Perhaps Toyokuni felt that Matsusuke was a fierce individual.

Because there is no deviation of expression in many of Toyokuni’s prints of Matsusuke, I wonder if Toyokuni was painting the character of the play as he saw Matsusuke, or painting Matsusuke as the character – because there is no variation of expression in the prints, I am going to say that Toyokuni may have indeed been painting the characters as he saw Matsusuke. Regardless, though, it is still very plain to see that Toyokuni was a fan of Kabuki and the actors involved with it.

Some background information on Toyokuni is essential to understand why Toyokuni chose to create Kabuki prints. Apparently, Toyokuni grew up as a doll maker’s son, where he was able to draw the faces of actors very well on to the dolls. He then went on to study underneath Utagawa Toyoharu, where he made prints for picture books and calendars.

He got really good at this, and a set of Kabuki actor prints were produced that people really liked and he gained recognition from them. Of course, I am not sure as to how true this is, as the site I was on looked kind of sketchy, but apparently Toyokuni drew women based on Toyoharu’s style, and his ukiyoe woman had a sort of popularity as well. Because of this, when the Kansei reform was passed, Toyokuni had to wear chains for fifty days. The Kansei reform censored any controversial topics, such as pleasure districts and any other related topics.

This print, done by Utagawa Toyoharu, of Onoe Mastusuke II might have been used as a bill to draw the audiences in to one of Matsusuke’s plays. It seems very simple, what with the rats at the character’s feet and the character striking a pose. Other than that, there really isn’t much to this picture and the only bit of color in it is the orange of the man’s garment. There are a lot of lines in the cloth, though, adding a sort of complexity. The character’s feet too, seem to be expressing an emotion coming from the man. If they were far apart, it wouldn’t look as menacing, so the fact that they are pressed together and his posture shows that he is about to conquer over his foes shows a sort of hostility. But, if you cut the rats out of the print – digitally of course!, then the whole pose just seems to be comedic.

Looking at the rats too, some of them seem to be scared, and in the midst of running away. One even looks to be stupefied, staring at the audience with a blank look in its beady little eyes. The fact that there is such detail, as to clothing and to the hair especially of the character, provides an idea that the character is more important than the rats. The character’s hair seems to have a texture to it, carefully done with elaborate carving. Looking at bottom of the garment too, I’m going to assume that it was the way the paper was rubbed against the block that gave it that swirling design.

While the print appears to be simple, it is anything but. If used as a play bill, an individual – maybe a member of a future audience would be able to see what Toyokuni saw when he went and watched the play.

The MIT site, and the other sketchy site about Toyokuni I have included in the links section of my blog. I also hope I broke this up in to small enough paragraphs so it won't kill anyone's eyes. You know, we need something like an LJcut on here >>.