# Boy performing a Narihira Dance

- By: Style of Iwasa Matabei (1578-1650)
- Date: late 17th century
- Medium: Ink, color and gold on paper
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: H x W (image): 28.5 × 33.8 cm (11 1/4 × 13 5/16 in)
- Culture: Japanese
- Credit line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://asia.si.edu/object/F1903.60/)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/0352b8de991fffa33402bdeda63cff2d.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

These two paintings (see also F1903.61) are sections from a late-seventeenth-century handscroll by an unidentified painter. In one, a boy performs a so-called Narihira odori (Narihira dance), in which the dancer enacts the role of the poet, nobleman, and romantic hero Ariwara no Narihira (825-880). Narihira dances, which feature an elegant costume with a courtier's hat, were often performed by boys and young men in early-seventeenth-century kabuki. In the other painting, a monkey performs a dance to entertain a mother and her children.