yakusha-e
Sign in to saveright|thumb|250px|Sharaku; The Kabuki actors Bando Zenji (on the left, in the role of [[Benkei) and Sawamura Yodogoro II (on the right, as Yoshitsune), in the play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune of the Thousand Cherry-Trees); 1794, fifth month.]] right|250px|thumb|Utagawa Toyokuni; The Kabuki actor Onoe Eisaburo I; c. 1800. Yakusha-e (役者絵), often referred to as "actor prints" in English, are Japanese woodblock prints or, rarely, paintings, of kabuki actors, particularly those done in the ukiyo-e style popular through the Edo period (1603–1867) and into the beginnings of the 20th century.
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Development of the form
- A Later Development
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
right|thumb|250px|Sharaku; The Kabuki actors Bando Zenji (on the left, in the role of [[Benkei) and Sawamura Yodogoro II (on the right, as Yoshitsune), in the play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune of the Thousand Cherry-Trees); 1794, fifth month.]] right|250px|thumb|Utagawa Toyokuni; The Kabuki actor Onoe Eisaburo I; c. 1800. Yakusha-e (役者絵), often referred to as "actor prints" in English, are Japanese woodblock prints or, rarely, paintings, of kabuki actors, particularly those done in the ukiyo-e style popular through the Edo period (1603–1867) and into the beginnings of the 20th century. Most strictly, the term yakusha-e refers solely to portraits of individual artists (or sometimes pairs, as seen in this work by Sharaku). However, prints of kabuki scenes and of other elements of the world of the theater are very closely related, and were more often than not produced and sold alongside portraits.
Ukiyo-e images were almost exclusively images of urban life; the vast majority that were not landscapes were devoted to depicting courtesans, sumo, or kabuki.