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Description: | IU, un s. on plate c. r. "Shunzan ga"; inscr. on plate t. r. "Popular entertainment at the Niwaka Festival" (translation); publisher's seal b. l.; 'kiwame' censor's seal b. r. CRE SHUNZAN, Katsukawa; (Japanese; active 1782 - 1798) PUB Nishimura-ya Yohachi (nishiyo) (Eijudo). This publishing house was active from 1710 - 1840. Shunzan's print depicts four women performing a dance at the annual Niwaka Festival that took place in Yoshiwara along the Naka-no-cho, the main street in Edo's licensed brothel quarters. Niwaka Kyogen consisted of dances and theatrical skits that had originated from the Kamigata region in the 1700s. From 1776, in an attempt to raise the profile of the Yoshiwara and to re-establish its former prestige, the owners of the main brothels revived the Niwaka Festival. Two of the female dancers are wearing courtiers' hats ('tate eboshi') this is also part of the costume associated with the 'shirabyoshi' dancer who belonged to a dance tradition that originated in the 12th Century. Shirabyoshi dancers were women who dressed as men in courtly robes - a mixture of Shinto priest and samurai costume. Traditionally they performed slow rhythmic dances before high ranking nobles to appease the Shinto gods. The women in this print may be enacting the tragic story of "Matsukaze" in which two 'shiokumi' (salt scooper) sisters fall in love with the poet, courtier and political exile Ariwara no Yukihara (818 - 891) when he is living in banishment at Suma. In time he is requested to return to the capital (Kyoto) and the two women are left behind, broken hearted, with only his cloak, his courtier's hat and a poem by which to remember him. Shunzen produced many different prints in this series, capturing the vibrant entertainment that took place in the 8th month of each year. At the top of the print, the dancers' names, the chanter of the performance and the instrumentalists were acknowledged. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | DANCE : JAPANESE PRINT : GILBERT INNES COLLECTION : NIWAKA : COURT DRESS : PERFORMANCE : THEATRE : COURTESAN : BEAUTY : YOSHIWARA : FESTIVAL : TEXTILE : COSTUME : KIMONO : PATTERN : HEIAN : NOH : MATSUKAZE : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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