Posted by John Fiorillo on January 11, 1999 at 19:51:43:
In Reply to: Re: Tempo Reforms posted by Dan on January 11, 1999 at 19:35:14:
Yes, the Tenpô reforms are a very interesting topic, especially in Osaka. Here are some exerpts from my research:
In the seventh month of 1842 various sumptuary edits were issued in Osaka (similar ones had been promulgated in Edo starting in the first month of the same year), which included restrictions on public access to the theaters, the number of theaters allowed to operate (only five), and the salaries of actors. Most important for ukiyo-e artists in Osaka were the direct bans on single-sheet prints or books depicting actors (even unillustrated publications containing stories related to kabuki were banned). These edicts were devastating to Osaka printmakers, for unlike their Edo-based counterparts, they relied almost exclusively on the theater for their subject matter; in effect, these reforms suspended the printing and selling of woodblock prints in Osaka for five years. Even after the easing of the enforcement of the reforms, the explicit identification of actors was frequently omitted from published prints in Osaka until around 1858, although there are a few earlier examples. Instead, print patrons relied on the accurate likenesses drawn by print artists, the role names inscribed on the prints, and their knowledge of current theatrical productions to identify the actors portrayed in the prints. The legacy of the repressive reforms also resulted in a common practice lasting a decade or more starting from mid-1847 whereby generic or fictitious titles were substituted for the actual titles of the plays. The removal of theatrical references from the prints and the use of generic titles lent an air of didacticism and historical probity to what were in reality recognizable actor portraits.
It is not certain why Osaka artists waited until early 1847 before testing the ban on actor prints, whereas a year or two earlier Kuniyoshi had already successfully challenged the censors in Edo with the ruse of illustrating history and legend in various series of prints published from 1845 and after, though these were actually based indirectly on theatrical performances. Kuniyoshi’s case is particularly interesting because in 1843, only two years before these series began to appear, he was investigated and reprimanded for his enormously popular satirical triptych about the shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and the earth spider (the woodblocks and remaining stocks of prints were destroyed).
Readers unfamiliar with the effects on printmaking of the Tenpô Reforms in Osaka might refer to a more detailed discussion by Matsudaira, S., ‘Kabuki theater in Osaka and the Tempô reforms’, in: Keyes, R., Hirosada: Osaka printmaker, LongBeach: 1984, pp. 26-31. The economic and political failures of Tadakuni’s reforms are discussed by Sheldon, C., The Rise of the Merchant Class in Tokugawa Japan, 1600-1868, Locust Valley NY: 1958, pp. 124-130.