Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Kan Shojo in the Mt. Tenpai Scene, from the series Famous Kabuki Plays (1814): Art, History and Details

Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Kan Shojo in the Mt. Tenpai Scene, from the series Famous Kabuki Plays (1814) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1786–1865).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Here, the actor plays the role of an exiled statesman, transforming himself into a vengeful thunder god. The red-and-white make-up style—kumadori, or "shadow painting"—is characteristic of the aragoto manner of portraying heroic roles. The crossed eyes and clenched mouth—in this role a plum blossom branch is added—demonstrates the conventional mie pose used by Kabuki actors to express intense emotion at the most dramatic moment in the play. The audience applauds the actor’s ability to hold this pose, influenced by the stylized movements of the puppets in the famous Bunraku theater. This sensational transformation of the hero is the high point of the scene.

Object facts

• Title: Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Kan Shojo in the Mt. Tenpai Scene, from the series Famous Kabuki Plays
• Date: 1814
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1786–1865)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print, with mica
• Dimensions: Overall: 38 x 25.9 cm (14 15/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.333

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• Jenkins, Donald. “Paintings of the Floating World.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 244–278.
• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295.
• Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.