Onoe Shōroku I as the Ghost of the Shirabyōshi Hanako Standing over Osagawa Shichizō II as Tsumagi, Maid Servant to Sakurahime, in Uruō-ōgi Sumizome no Sakura
Utagawa Toyokuni I (Japanese, 1769–1825)
c. 1810
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 36.4 × 24.7 cm (14 5/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Samuel M. Nickerson Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The actor Onoe Shōroku I (1744–1815; also known as Onoe Matsusuke I) was known for playing supernatural roles, which often required quick changes of costume to transform from a beauty into a demon or ghost. This print documenting a performance at the Ichimura-za Theater in Edo (now Tokyo) tries to mimic the special effects of the Kabuki stage by including a flap of paper that hides the ghost the young woman transforms into.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
