Stars of the Tokyo Stage - National Gallery of Australia

Stars of the Tokyo Stage - National Gallery of Australia

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Posted 2014-07-22 by ThomasBfollow

Sat 19 Jul 2014 - Sun 12 Oct 2014

The room is filled with print upon print, featuring heavily made-up faces, extravagant eye-liner, physics-defying hairdos and expressions ranging from stern, snide, triumphant and desperate: the place looks like a teenager's bedroom… if that teenager had lived in Japan in the early 20th century.



Stars of the Tokyo stage: kabuki costumes and Natori Shunsen's actor prints, currently on show at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), lets you step inside the glamorous world of the Japanese kabuki theatre as it was in the 1920s and 30s. Kabuki – which broadly translates as: "the art of singing and dancing" – is an ancient form of Japanese theatre, dating back to the early 17th century. It is famous for the stylization of its drama and the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.



As Japan opened itself to Western influences in the early 20th century, some artists, including Natori Shunsen, saw this changing environment as a threat to the traditional Japanese arts. From 1915, he produced woodblock prints of famous kabuki actors and scenes for different Japanese publications. Using traditional techniques and subject-matter, he was at the centre of a modern revival of Japanese theatre and kabuki.



Each print depicts one or two leading actors as a character from kabuki's repertoire of historical dramas, domestic plays, comedies, tragedies, crime thrillers and supernatural epics. The images capture kabuki's exaggerated facial expressions, flamboyant costumes, cross-dressing, bold makeup and dramatic poses. It is stunning to see the transformation that actors undergo when incarnating two very different roles. And with a broad range of archetypes to portray, striking make-up, hairdo and costumes have a very important role to play.



The National Gallery of Australia is one of the few institutions to hold kabuki theatre costumes in its collection, and some are displayed in Stars of the Tokyo stage. Colourful robes and kimonos, ornamented with lavish designs, were often used for very particular roles, such as the brilliant akahime (red princess) robe, which was reserved for roles such as Shizuka in Yoshitsune and the thousand cherry trees.



Film clips and several other prints complement the series of portraits by Natori Shunsen, and explore all other aspects of the kabuki theatre scene: the sounds, crowds, lights, buildings and theatre sets that were as much part of the kabuki scene as the actors themselves

Stars of the Tokyo stage is full of colours, textures, stories and downright wonder. It is on show at the National Gallery of Australia until 12 October 2014. Entry is free.
More information: click here

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!date 19/07/2014 -- 12/10/2014
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164630 - 2023-06-15 00:03:43

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