Posted by Theo de Kreijger on January 09, 1999 at 10:48:32:
In Reply to: Senchô title translation posted by Hans Olof Johansson on January 08, 1999 at 14:08:19:
Yes, I'm still here!
But my answer to this thread caused the server to get stuck some days ago :o)
That's why the old threads have been archived now by Gary Gestson. Lack of spare time also caused that I'm a little (?!?) bit behind at the moment. But I will "compress" your answers and questions into something usefull at my page soon. They already contributed a lot to my "quest" (although I'm more then confused by the turn the postings in the original thread took).
But, reading all this I discovered that no one really mentioned another general fact that perhaps might explain the true meaning of these series. During the years 1852/53 suddenly a lot of this kind of prints saw the light. Although they have been preseded by similar series before that period, they were now produced in great numbers and all had the following in common: 1. They were almost allways designed or co-designed by Kunisada. 2. They all showed a fixed number (6, 36, 53 or 100) of actors in famous roles, combined by some thematic subject, 3. Most of them are appriciated for there more-then-average quality in design and printing and 4. All of them have been published (according to the censor seals) within a very short period of time. Some examples are: "Mitate Sanjurokkasen no Uchi, "Chushingura", "Edo Meisho Zue", "Tokaido Gojusan Tsugi no Uchi".
Why this booming interest in these printseries that:
1. don't show straight forward kabuki "news" but some derived gathering of subjects with several visual and textual layers of meaning?
2. were luxuriously printed in full colour and probably quite expensive to collect?
3. show so many bustportraits of famous actors (again)?
Was this to result of a development that had already been going on for decades, or just a sudden swing in fashion??? Or did these series fill a gap in time when (interesting) kabuki plays were absent and publishers had to come up with something else???
In fact this "trend" peaked again ten years later around the years 1861/63 and some true masterpieces were designed by Kunisada in this period (for instance the "actor mitate" that John Fiorillo describes).
More questions to be solved I guess ...
Perhaps I have some answers to, considering the Sencho part of "my" thread. This print I stumbled upon in an old catalogue might shed some more light on the title problem. I've put it next to the first picture.
Click here to see it.
Regards, Theo de Kreijger