Description:
Oshiguma; Kabuki; theater; make-up; scroll
Label Text:
Kumadori is the name for the stage makeup worn by kabuki actors when performing their roles, meant to exaggerate their features for dramatic effect beneath the stage lights. This print, a face rubbing transferred onto silk, is an authentic mirror image of the makeup worn by BandÅ Hideko when he performed the role of Kozaru the monkey in the play Utsubo Zaru. Over time, the makeup and costumes of kabuki plays took on a canonical specificity, each tailored to a well-known role. Audiences familiar with the world of kabuki could thus recognize a character from their costume alone or makeup alone. Likewise, the character of the monkey as it was known in Edo has survived to this day, complete with the traditional red-and-white accents. In addition, the staff of the sarumawashi, or monkey trainer, in use since at least the early seventeenth century, appears on the silk mounting.
- BB, ed., 2015
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2009.124 |
