Tsuruya Kokei is a contemporary artist working in a method adapted from traditional ukiyo-e printmaking. His prints may evoke the works of great Tôshûsai Sharaku, but they are not mere copies or pastiches of those eighteenth-century masterpieces. Unlike traditional ukiyo-e artists who provided publishers with original drawings for their block cutters and printers, Kokei draws, carves, and prints his own designs, but with a difference — he prints on very thin papers, in particular ganpi from Koichi and Fukui Prefectures. These papers are very difficult to work with, but their translucent quality imparts an expressive fragility to his designs and complements his range of pigments. He uses hô (silver magnolia, softer than cherry and more easily carved) and takes about 40 days to complete an edition of 72 (all his editions are small).

The figure at the top left was issued in November 1984 and printed on ôban-size 'ganpi' from Koichi. It depicts the actor Nakamura Utaemon VI as Tonase in Act 9 from the perennially popular kabuki play Kanadehon chûshingura ("Writing Manual of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers"). Tonase is the wife of the councilor Honzô [see also Shunsen's portrait]. In the scene shown here Tonase has just vowed to take her own life and that of her daughter Konami who has just been humiliated in a failed marriage arrangement. Tonase wears her husband's two swords in a symbolic gesture as she prepares for their deaths (which are prevented at the last moment). Kokei's design is a brilliant one. The use of gofun (calcium carbonate pigment) mimics the opaque white face powder used by the actor and gives Tonase an air of deadly resolve. The lines of the face are tense and thin, and the exaggerated hand (a trademark of Kokei's style) grips the sword hilt and serves as an emotional center for the design [see larger image]. The crimson of the kimono offers a surprising bright note in an otherwise grim portrayal.

The figure on the right is one of six prints issued to commemorate the succession to the name of Ichikawa Danjûrô XII in 1985. It is an ôban-size print on ganpi from Fukui with a silver mica ground. All the plays in this set are aragoto ("rough stuff"), a specialty of the Ichikawa family (their Kabuki jûhachiban or "Eighteen Favorite Plays" have been standards since their public codification in 1840 by Danjûrô VII). The actor is shown as the hero Kamakura Gongoro in the play Shibaraku ("Wait a Moment!"), first staged by Danjûrô I in 1697. Gongoro defeats an evil lord named Takehira in his plot to usurp the power of the governor of the Eastern Provinces. Kokei has produced a vivid portrait of the actor, producing a colorful design with overprintings of green, pink, and gray. The make-up is one type of kumadori ("taking the shadows"), a bold style used in aragoto plays. The Ichikawa family crest can be seen on Danjûrô's chest (the mimasu or "three rice measures"). Kokei's use of soft-edge printing is also evident around Danjûrô's collar [see larger image].

The figure on the immediate right is an ôban-size print depicting the actor Nakamura Kichiemon II as Tokichi in the play Gion sairei shinkoki in the "The Golden Pavilion Scene" (Kinkakuji no ba). Tokichi was a retainer plotting to rescue the late shogun's mother from the evil Daizen. The two play a game of go, which Tokichi wins, whereupon Daizen throws the box of go counters down a well and challenges Tokichi to retrieve it without wetting his hands. Tokichi diverts water from a waterfall into the well and floats the box to the top, lifts it with his fan, and sets it upon an upturned go board. The actor is portrayed against a purple-pink mica ground, and the curving lines of Kokei's earlier works have changed here to more angular and straighter lines, giving the portrait a quality of rigid confrontation. Once again the enlarged and distorted hand serves as a focal point for the composition and the soft-edge printing is quite effective [see larger image].

Kokei's images are fascinating. Their exaggerated physiognomy and expressive mie ("display") offer startling emotional portrayals filtered through a modern sensibility. These portraits have elements of traditional ukiyo-e, drawn-from-life accuracy, and caricature that make them unique and important art works, perhaps vital enough to revive what had in recent years become a moribund genre of kabuki actor portraiture. Whether Kokei's prints can help to revitalize the kabuki theater in the minds and hearts of museum curators and print collectors remains to be seen; unfortunately, Kokei ceased designing prints at the end of 2000. We can only hope that this will not be a permanent decision, but for now the best of Kokei's prints have already become vivid records of the powerful presence of the actor on the stage. ©1999-2001 by John Fiorillo

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Brandon, James: Chûshingura: Studies in Kabuki and the Puppet Theater. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1982.
• Halford, Aubrey & Giovanna: The Kabuki Handbook. Rutland & Tokyo: Tuttle, 1956, pp. 36-40 & 259-262.
• Keene, Donald: Chûshingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.
• Shôchiku Co. (Eds.): Tsuruya Kokei: Kabuki Actor Prints (The 100th Anniversary of the Kabuki-za Theatre). Tokyo: Shochiku Co. and Toryo Publishing Co., 1988.
• Smith, Lawrence: Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989. London: British Museum Press, 1994, p. 66, plates 139-140.