Posted by John Fiorillo on January 03, 1999 at 14:01:29:
In Reply to: Re:Sanjûrokkasen Ghosts vs. Poets posted by Theo de Kreijger on January 03, 1999 at 12:07:21:
Follow-up from JF:
As you have indicated, mitate can have various meanings when used in ukiyo-e. Your suggestion that the first of your definitions would be the most appropriate for Kunisada’s series is a reasonable one. As for the second, I do not think the mitate is meant to suggest the poets are acting on the stage in lieu of the actors. I would not, however, limit the connotations of mitate to any one meaning for any one print series, so the significance of mitate could possibly vary from design to design. You’ll have to examine all the evidence in each case.
As mitate is a very common and important term in print and series titles (and often a key to some of the most enjoyable and challenging print designs), perhaps the following from my own research will help:
Mitate means "compare" or "view and construct", that is, a likening of one thing to another. It can also mean, literally, "seeing with one’s own eyes." Mitate was a metaphorical, often playful or ironic connection made in popular Tokugawa art and literature that linked the contemporary with the historical (either the recent or distant past), or the vulgar with the refined (zoku and ga), thereby creating imaginative, simultaneous, multiple layers of meanings that coexisted rather than blended. There was pleasure to be gained from the recognition of complex doubling (and tripling, etc.) of seemingly unrelated subjects. One of the chief characteristics about the products of Edo-period culture was the awareness on the part of its relatively knowledgeable audience that they were engaged in a "doubling" experience (shukô) in which the work of art was reflective of itself and its audience as well as referential toward earlier works. The earliest use of the term mitate may have been in 1638 in regard to the haikai poetry technique. In critical discussions of waka poetry, mitate is generally used as a term denoting figurative language of many kinds, much of the time involving indirect metaphors or comparisons.
In ukiyo-e mitate takes many forms. Contemporary figures are substituted for historical ones, or contemporary events are meant to represent events from the past. Allusions to classical poetry are common (as, of course, in Kunisada’s series), but whether these references were meant to produce literal equivalence depends on the specific example. (As you are a member of the Society for Japanese Arts, perhaps you might refer to my article in Andon no. 52 where I discuss the significance of the poetry used in Utamaro’s series Tôsei koika hakkei). Sometimes these connections are explicit, at other times they are so oblique that the use of the term "mitate" barely establishes a connection. In the latter case mitate is often used only to lend a kind of historical resonance or aristocratic glow to otherwise contemporary customs, manners, or events.
As for the use of "mitate" to signify an actor in an imaginary role, that is indeed fairly common in Osaka printmaking (though it is also found in Edo prints). More specifically, patrons of the actors commissioned portraits of their favorite actors in roles they never performed, or rival actors were paired up in roles they never performed together (though they did so with other actors). Celebrated deceased actors were also portrayed in performances that took place after their deaths. You might find examples of what we might call here "actor mitate" in Kunisada’s series, but I can’t say for certain that you will. Kunisada did indeed portray deceased actors in his last masterpiece, the untitled series of impressive large head portraits from the 1860s.
In short, mitate are both allusive and elusive – the challenge and the pleasure reside in uncovering the mysteries that they contain.