Kabuki brain puzzles: Station‐character motif patterns in the actor Tōkaidō series of Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) S UMMARY Andreas Marks, PhD cand. During the late Edo period, Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) was the most popular and sought‐
after woodblock print designer of his day, contrary to today’s favorites Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858). Kunisada quickly climbed the ladder of success, illustrating books and designing primarily actor prints (yakushae) and portraits of beautiful women (bijinga). His actor portraits document and immortalize all the great performances and actors of the early nineteenth century, a field that Kunisada dominated over a period of some 50 years. Throughout the Edo period (1603–1868), the Tōkaidō was the most vital road of Japan, and as part of a wide network of smaller and larger highways, it connected Edo (present‐day Tokyo) with Kyoto. No other highway in Japan reached such a level of attention and the status of a national symbol such as the Tōkaidō. There exists a vast amount of literary and artistic work and the popularity among the masses started in 1802 with the first issue of Jippensha Ikku’s (1766–
1831) bestselling serial novel On Shank’s Mare along the Tōkaidō. The success of this adventure story would eventually lead to the publication of series of Tōkaidō prints by various designers. These print series, usually consisting of 55 designs (53 stations plus the start and the end), initially focused on life and geography along the road and documented a journey that many undertook, and many more dreamt of. The Tōkaidō theme became quickly established as a serialization device within the framework of Japanese woodblock prints, and until 1890, 84 series with more than 3,200 designs were created. In the early 1800s, Hokusai concentrated on human activities and famous products and even Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806) tried to link his portraits of beautiful women to the stations. Today, the Tōkaidō is generally associated with landscape prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai. A different treatment of the Tōkaidō theme shows the work of Kunisada who focused in his series especially on portraits of actors. It is his achievement to have created a new type of Tōkaidō print by juxtaposing popular kabuki actors in specific roles to stations along the Tōkaidō. Kunisada developed this type of actor print by designing not just one or two series but 15 Tōkaidō series that are related to the kabuki theatre (published between 1835 and 1864). In order to answer the question how Kunisada came to combining kabuki characters and stations, it is necessary to reconstruct how he handled the Tōkaidō in his long career and therefore to examine his oeuvre in more detail. After an introduction, chapter two of this thesis commences with a brief biography of Kunisada. Before discussing Kunisada’s series in general and their importance in his oeuvre, this chapter also provides a discussion of the typical phenomenon of serialization in the tradition of Japanese prints, outlining its marketing mechanisms and concepts. The third chapter introduces the main theme of this study, the Tōkaidō, its historical‐cultural background as well as its influence on the arts and literature of the Edo period. Obviously, special emphasis is put on the theme of the Tōkaidō in the medium of Japanese woodblock prints. It concludes with a definition of Tōkaidō series and the various categories that were eventually developed. Chapter four turns to Kunisada’s fifteen Tōkaidō series and concentrates on their historical development. These series are discussed in chronological order and put into the wider context of the development of Japanese prints during the 19th century to emphasize the development of the theme in his career, their genesis and significance at the time of creation. This chapter also investigates the interaction between Kunisada and Hiroshige on the Tōkaidō theme and reconstructs the gradual development of a canon of station‐character motif patterns. In the mid 1830s Kunisada discovered the Tōkaidō as serial device and created a new type of bipolar print that was primarily aimed at kabuki connoisseurs and collectors of landscape prints. But instead of randomly juxtaposing characters to Tōkaidō stations, he gives meaning to a landscape through kabuki. He devised station‐character motif patterns and developed over the years kabuki brain puzzles that challenged the viewers. Chapter five evaluates these station‐
character motif patterns and offers an analytical approach to the methods he employed when he invented and developed these patterns. All applied methods are proof of Kunisada’s deep familiarity with the kabuki world, and his profound knowledge of legends and mythology. These methods are: •
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Play connection Most of the station‐character juxtapositions are derived from a direct connection between station and character as told in a specific play or a group of plays. Kabuki plays mostly consist of a number of acts and scenes which are not virtually set at the exact same location. The various locations might be geographically near, e.g. within a city or even within a large estate, but they can also be set at distant places like a far away island where a protagonist was exiled to etc. Legend / literary connection A respected number of motif patterns are based on legends or literary works that are in some way related to the Tōkaidō. Allusions to such legends can also be embedded in kabuki plays or the legends can be dramatized into a play. Homophone connection The last two methods applied require an even deeper knowledge of the kabuki theater and are proof for Kunisada’s profound familiarity with the plays and characters he portrayed. The third method is the connection through a homophone to a station. This homophone might be the name of the portrayed character, a related character, or the name of a related place. Paronomasia connection Station‐character motif patterns were also achieved through paronomasia, plays on words that reach, in this case, beyond the usage of simple homophones. They rely on different shades of meaning, pronunciation, or metaphors of one or more kanji of a station name, without touching the dimension of humor. By repeating motifs for certain stations, Kunisada established and perpetuated over the years a canon of station‐character motif patterns that was also employed by other designers such as Kuniyoshi or Kunichika. In Kunisada’s actor Tōkaidō series are twenty‐four station‐character motif patterns found, capturing identical characters or minor supporting characters from the same narrative. Chapter six illustrates five motif patterns, outlining the detailed stories behind them. Chapter seven concludes with the overall implications of this study, summarizing the arguments on the station‐character motif patterns.