Evening Rain at Shukaku - the actor Nakamura Nakazo as Sadakuro, from an untitled series of actor prints
1780
Medium
Color woodblock print; chuban
Dimensions
25 × 18.5 cm (9 7/8 × 7 5/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
87510
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This work is a parody in several dimensions. “Shukaku” is the pen name of the actor Nakazô, who performed a role in the play. In a parody of the famous letter-reading scene in Act VII, the print title and a quotation by Nakazô are written in reverse in the background of the scene. The quotation suggests a then well-known series of eight paintings of Chinese rivers famous for their (imense) great beauty. Edo audiences greatly enjoyed unraveling the many implied references in works of this type. T...
About the Artist
Torii Kiyonaga · 1752–1815
Torii Kiyonaga, born Sekiguchi Shinsuke in 1752 in Uraga, Sagami Province, was the son of an Edo bookseller who owned tenements near a bustling fish market. At age 14 in 1765, he began his apprenticeship under Torii Kiyomitsu, the third-generation head of the prestigious Torii school of ukiyo-e, renowned for kabuki theater illustrations and signage. Adopted into the Torii family, Kiyonaga succeede...