Shadow art - Shadow

A game in which hands, cutouts, dolls, pictures drawn on glass panels, etc. are projected by light onto walls, paper screens, sliding doors, screens, etc., allowing children to enjoy the shapes and art of objects through their silhouettes. Shadow puppets are played by combining hands and fingers in various ways to create shapes such as dogs, foxes, rabbits, and boatmen. Anyone can easily play this game, and it can produce surprising effects. As a very simple game, it was recommended as a means of early childhood education in ancient times, and is still widely practiced today.

The history of shadow art is said to have begun in China during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (156-87 BC), and it is believed to have been practiced in Japan for a long time, but its origins are unclear. However, in the Edo period, shadow art appeared under the name of "shadow puppets" in works such as "Rakuyoshu" published in 1680 and "Saikaku Oki Miyage" and "Chuya Yojinki" by Ihara Saikaku, and it is known that it was popular among the people as a type of art. In addition, "zashiki shadow art," in which a shadow image of a fisherman was projected onto a paper screen while a humorous song about the fisherman was sung, became popular around the Horeki period (1751-1764) as a form of entertainment at banquets in a Japanese-style room, and later people also began to use glass painting boards to project various scenery onto the screens and enjoy the art. During the Kyowa era (1801-04), a device was developed that used glasses called Ekiman mirrors to project colored pictures onto glass sheets; this was called utsushi-e. After that, as the mechanisms became more and more sophisticated, this technique was often used at comedy halls and pleasure boats, but it was also a type of magic lantern. The rotating lantern, a typical summer sight, is also called shadow lantern and is said to have been invented as early as the mid-Edo period. As is well known, the cut-out picture on the inner tube rotates due to the heat of the light, projecting its shadow onto the outer tube; this can also be said to be an advanced form of shadow play.

One example of a form of theater that developed from shadow puppets was the shadow puppet theater that is said to have been founded by Harunosuke Yoshida of Awa (Tokushima prefecture) around 1877 (Meiji 10), but this type of shadow theater has now fallen into disuse.

[Shigeru Takayama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

手、切抜き絵、人形、ガラス板に描いた絵などを灯火によって壁、障子、襖(ふすま)、スクリーンなどに映し、シルエットで物の形や芸を楽しむ遊び。手や指をさまざまに組み合わせてイヌ、キツネ、ウサギ、船頭(せんどう)などの形をつくる「手影絵(てかげえ)」は、だれでも簡単にでき、意外な効果を生む、もっとも素朴な遊戯であるだけに、いにしえは幼児教育の手段としても推奨されたが、今日に至ってもなお一般に広く浸透して行われている。

　影絵の歴史は、一説には中国・漢の武帝（前156―前87）のころに始まるといわれ、日本でも相当古くから行われていたと思われるが、その起源はさだかではない。しかし江戸時代に入ると、延宝(えんぽう)8年（1680）刊の『洛陽(らくよう)集』や井原西鶴(いはらさいかく)の『西鶴置(おき)土産(みやげ)』『昼夜用心記』などに、影絵は「影人形」の名でみえ、一種の芸として巷間(こうかん)に流行していたことが知られる。また座敷の宴のもて遊びとして、鳥刺しの影絵を障子に映しつつおもしろおかしく鳥刺しの唄(うた)を歌う、いわゆる「座敷影絵」が宝暦(ほうれき)年間（1751～64）ごろに流行したが、のちにはガラスの画板を用い、さまざまの風物を映して楽しむことも行われるようになった。享和(きょうわ)年間（1801～04）には、エキマン鏡という眼鏡を種とし、ビードロ（ガラス板）ヘ彩色の絵を描いて映すくふうがなされ、これを「写(うつ)し絵」と称した。以後、仕掛けがだんだん巧妙になるにしたがい、寄席(よせ)や遊山船(ゆさんぶね)でもしばしば行われるようになったが、これらは幻灯の一種でもあった。夏の風物詩である回り灯籠(どうろう)は影灯籠ともいわれ、江戸中期にはすでに考案されていたといわれる。よく知られているように、内側の筒の切抜き絵が灯火の熱によって回転し、外側の筒にその影絵が映る仕組みであるが、これも影絵の発展した形態であるといえよう。

　影絵が劇に発展したものには、1877年（明治10）ころ阿波(あわ)（徳島県）の吉田春之助が創始したといわれる影絵の指人形芝居があったが、今日ではその系統の影絵芝居は廃絶している。

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