Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) Fashionable Modern Clothing: Gado Kataoka in the Dressing Room, 1885. Oban.
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There was a vogue among the fanatical fans of kabuki theatre to have souvenir pictures of their favourite stars backstage. Especially images of the actors applying make-up or wigs or making stage preparations. More often than not this involved the use of a mirror or reflection. There is a practical intent behind this, because the stage make-up mirror is both an essential piece of equipment and also a device to enable complex visual tricks and compositions within the design.
There is something else at work here though. The mirror in Edo Japan was a rare luxury. It was associated with the theatre or with the habits of prostitutes and geisha. It was both an item of luxury but also a figment of desire, of escapism. The mirror here is a window onto a better, more exciting world and the theatre was also just that… a mirror of the real world but better, exaggerated, a mystical, ‘fourth wall’, if you like. There are several series, starting with Kunisada, that use the device of the polished bronze mirror… and remember there were no glass mirrors in Japan until the Meiji revolution.
The portrait is of the tragic actor, Gado Kataoka II. Note how he is carefully about to start applying eye make-up, but he is shown in front of the mirror, his back to the ‘glass’, as if there were another mirror off to the right. Here we have the mirror purely as a symbol… the actor strangely absent in fact. The title of the series that this may have been part of is - A set of Modern Clothes or Dressing Room Complete with Contemporary Folk Clothes. This refers to the rough woven garment Gado is wearing and suggests a relationship with basic townsfolk.
The Kataoka Clan of actors were based in Osaka. Gado Kataoka II appears in numerous Osaka prints from the 1840’s. The clan moved from Osaka to Edo in 1854… presumably because there were fewer laws outlawing theatres and actors. They returned to Osaka in 1862 but eventually Gado and his brother settled back in Edo as successful kabuki actors. Sadly, he was not a stable man and his quarrels with his brother and other actors drove him to madness. He died as a consequence in 1895.
A really great and enigmatic portrait; a substantial design also filled with a certain pathos. Colour and impression very fine, condition is outstanding and the print is untrimmed and un-backed. There is a very faint mark just visible on the face, possibly a paper flaw. A great Kunichika print.
37 x 25 cm.
