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Evening Rain at Shukaku - the actor Nakamura Nakazo as Sadakuro, from an untitled series of actor prints
Torii Kiyonaga (Japanese, 1752-1815)
1780
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 25 × 18.5 cm (9 7/8 × 7 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This work is a parody in several dimensions. “Shukaku” is the pen name of the actor Nakazô, who performed a role in the play. In a parody of the famous letter-reading scene in Act VII, the print title and a quotation by Nakazô are written in reverse in the background of the scene. The quotation suggests a then well-known series of eight paintings of Chinese rivers famous for their (imense) great beauty. Edo audiences greatly enjoyed unraveling the many implied references in works of this type. The scene in this print is based on Act V in the play; Hiroshige’s interpretation of Act V is shown nearby.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
