Ichikawa Ennosuke as a sanbasō dancer

The major Japanese 20th century printmaker Natori Shunsen (1886-1960) first worked for the principal publisher of shin-hanga ('modern prints'), Watanabe Shozaburo, in 1916 and was well-known in America through his exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art. Shunsen was one of the first to re-establish his relationship with the publisher after the war, and his works were immediately popular. Their appeal, as of shin-hanga generally, was due largely to their direct, accessible, naturalism. They reflected the experiences of Western visitors, and they confirmed an ‘imagined Japan’ for collectors in America.

Natori’s local public would have enjoyed seeing sanbaso dancers performing at the opening of the kabuki theatre season. Sanbaso are divine dances, cleansing rites related to the purification of spaces. Natori’s dancer wears the distinctive long striped hat with the red sun motif associated with sanbaso. While the distinctive kumadori facial make-up accentuates the intense concentration of the actor, Natori’s primary focus is on portraying a carefully controlled dynamism that lent his full-figure compositions the same sense of psychological drama as that conveyed in the portraits. The striking arrangements of white cranes on a black ground would have delighted his Japanese viewers. The reference is to the proverb "Like the mere crow trying to fly like the magnificent crane". Taking their cue from the closely positioned feet and slightly raised knee and toes of the left leg, the jerkily contrasting angles running through Ichikawa’s costume convey the nervous hopping of the dance at the point where the crow fails to ascend gracefully into the air.

Source: David Bell, 'A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection', Tuhinga, 31 (2020), forthcoming.

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    May 2019