Japanese Prints from the Arizona State University Art Museum
The ASU Art Museum serves a diverse community of artists and audiences through innovative programming that is interdisciplinary, educational and relevant to life today. The Jules Heller Print Study Room at the ASU Art Museum provides a secure environment for care and storage for more than 6000 prints in the collection while also being an accessible resource for students and public. An average of 600 students visit the Jules Heller Print Study Room during the academic year. To further assist the educational experience, on display are examples of tools used to create the prints and the Curator of Prints is available to explain the tools and print making processes to students, professors and scholars. Classes and individual students have participated in the origination and research of exhibitions from our Japanese print holdings: Lasting Impressions: Japanese Prints from the ASU Art Museum (Aug. 28 – Nov. 27, 2010); Legends and Myths in Japanese Kabuki Prints (Feb. 11 – Sept. 29, 2012); and, Echoes of Japan: Prints by Western Women (Jan. 3 – May 17, 2014). By digitizing the Japanese print collection; and placing it in the Library's digital repository will expand and support our interdisciplinary and educational focus in Japanese art, making it available to a much broader audience than just the museum visitor. This is a collaboration between ASU Libraries, the ASU Art Museum, and ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
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- All Subjects: kabuki
The actor Nakamura Shikan IV 中村芝翫[4] as the character Sajima Tenkaku. There are two different crests (kamon) on his kimono; one represents an amulet (Gion mamori) and was adopted by the progenitor of the Nakamura house of actors, Nakamura Utaemon I. According to John Dower in his guide to Japanese crests, The Elements of Japanese Design (1971), this crest was originally associated with the Yasaka Shrine, but during the Edo period, it also had an association with Christianity due to the hidden cross it contained. The other crest is associated with the Nakamura Shikan line within the Nakamura house; it represents the back of a plum blossom (uraume).
The black flag at the upper right corner contains the series name. The scroll at the upper left contains a text description of the print, including the title, Kurofuda (black plank), referring to the black wooden plank to the right of the stage. When a member of the audience needed to be paged, their name would be written on this plank.
This print gives a glimpse into a kabuki theater. A stage assistant beats long wooden clappers (hyoshigi or ki) to accentuate the opening of the curtain and the start of the performance. Another assistant is waiting to strike slightly shorter clappers (tsuke) against a board placed on the floor to emphasize other onstage actions such as running, fighting, or mie (striking a powerful, emotional pose). It also gives a glimpse of the audience and while some appear to be attentive to the action on stage, others are also talking, looking at notes and even entertaining a baby.
This is one print from a calendar series describing events in Edo Kabuki theater. The black emblem in the top right corner tells the title of the series; the scroll holds text explaining the theatrical event. This print was made during the Meiji period (1868-1912), but stems from a long history of calendar printmaking. The title Sashidashi Kantera literally means “reaching-out lantern.” The man on the right is holding a candle with a reflector on a long, flexible bamboo pole to light up the face of the actor.
Scene from a play about the Genpei War between the Taira and Minamoto clans.
The actor Hikosaburō Bandō IV坂東彦三郎 as the character Ono Sadakurō in the play Chūshin Meimei Kikigaki Zōsho.
