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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Triptych depicting backstage preparations during a kabuki play.
Depicted are the kabuki actors Nakamura Shikan IV 四代目 中村 芝翫 as the wood cutter Ōtomo Kuronushi 大伴 黒主, who is plotting a coup d'état, and Sawamura Tanosuke III 三代目 中村 芝翫 as Sumizome 墨染, the spirit of the cherry tree.
This diptych portrays the actors Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目 市川 海老蔵 as Musashibō Benkei 武蔵坊 辨慶 (left) and Ichikawa Danjurō VIII 八代目 市川 団十郎 as Togashi Saemon 富樫 左衛門 (right).
This diptych shows the ghost of Asakura Tōgo 朝倉當吾 returning to haunt the man responsible for his death, the corrupt governor Orikoshi Tairyō 織越大領. A kappa (a traditional folk monster) tumbles comically at Orikoshi’s feet.
This diptych shows the kabuki actors, Iwai Hanshirō V 五代目 岩井半四郎 as Hanaregoma Chōkichi 放駒長吉 (left) and Nakamura Daikichi 中村大吉 as Nuregami Chōgorō 濡髪長五郎 (right) dueling amongst straw bales of rice.
This triptych shows a scene from the kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees).
This print is the first in the Tsutaya Kichizō edition of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō Road and depicts Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo, which the traveler would cross on the way to the first station at Shinagawa.
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).