Posted by Gary Gestson on April 01, 1999 at 17:07:16:
In Reply to: Onnagata cloth vs. bakufu posted by John Fiorillo on March 31, 1999 at 15:25:55:
: There was a question posted by Julian Suarez on March 30th regarding a Toyokuni III print dated circa 1842-52 depicting an onnagata wearing a head cloth. The message is now gone from Chats (it was at http://www.shogungallery.com/wwwboard/message4/357.html) – was it deleted? I did print the message before its disappearance because I wanted to respond as I thought some clarification was needed on the issue of the bakufu’s ban against actor prints in 1842. Here is my response:
: JS,
: You have questioned how a print depicting an actor in an onnagata role could show a forehead cloth during the Tenpô censorship period. I assume you’re wondering why it was not censored as an actor portrait. Your Toyokuni III print does indeed fall within the period when fairly severe restrictions against actor prints were officially in effect, though by 1852 they were no longer seriously enforced. Although you say the censor seals place your print within the span of the decade 1842-1852, we cannot be certain whether it was published late in the period when the threat of the edicts had weakened considerably. I wonder, too, whether your print depicts the actors without naming them, and also whether the subject is an historical one. Here’s why:
: The Tenpô Reforms, instituted by Mizuno Tadakuni (1774-1851), the chief councilor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi, began in the first month of 1842 in Edo and the seventh month of 1842 in Osaka. They were most strictly enforced for the next 3-5 years, but had lingering effects for a decade or more. Among the various sumptuary edicts were bans on single-sheet prints depicting actors. Initially artists and publishers refrained from publishing subjects directly associated with Kabuki. Around 1845 recognizable actor portraits began to appear in Edo, though it wasn’t until 1847 that they appeared in Osaka. Slowly and tentatively artists like Kunisada began designing actor prints without actually naming the performers. They identified only their roles, which were typically those involving historical personages. Artists also avoided placing their figures in recognizable theatrical settings, placing them instead in landscapes, cityscapes, and other "neutral" settings. Thus the thinly veiled subterfuge meant that should the subject matter or portraits be questioned by the shogunate’s government (‘bakufu’), the publishers and artists could claim that they were "not" actors but figures from history. These barely disguised actor portraits probably did not actually fool the censor’s, but by presenting the actors as historical persons the artists and publishers had a margin of safety as they tested the uncertain intentions of the bakufu, and the censors apparently went along with the game. Thus the key after 1845-47 was not literally to avoid depicting actors, but to leave them unnamed on the prints and to depict them in settings other than on the kabuki stage.
: Thus recognizable physiognomies were used in representing the actors’ faces even during the Tenpô Reform period. Occasionally other trappings of the actors’ craft were also included, as in the head cloth. It might seem curious that your onnagata wears the ‘murasaki-bôshi’, thus risking punishment from the censors, but including the onnagata’s forelock cloth in ukiyo-e designs did resume in the late 1840s – early 1850s (while the actors’ names were still omitted). So its appearance on your print is not terribly significant, especially if your print was issued late in the censorship period.
: For those unfamiliar with the term ‘murasaki-bôshi’, it means "purple cap" and represents the purple silk headcloth used by onnagata to cover the shaved forelock, which was used during performances when acting in female roles and off-stage on formal occasions. (Although the cloth was typically purple, it does appear in different colors in kabuki and in ukiyo-e prints). When the "Boy’s kabuki" (‘wakashu kabuki’) was banned in 1652 to eliminate male prostitution from the theaters, boy actors who played female roles were forced to cut off their long forelocks, which were an important part of their erotic appeal, and to shave the top of their heads in the adult male manner. The ‘bakufu’ hoped this would make them less attractive to potential customers. In response the young male actors (as well as the adult male actors playing women’s’ roles) resorted to covering their "unsightly" exposed pates with decorative headcloths. Many styles of wigs were also used to hide the shaven head as well as enhance the role performed on the stage.
: John Fiorillo
Hi John,
I don't think I deleted it. I am having a problem
with responses from the archives overwriting current
messages. I have the solution to the problem, but it
requires archiving the current group. I will be able
to do that in the next day or two. Sorry for the
continuity disturbance.
Gary