"Okuni Kabuki Screen"

...In other words, in hand-painted genre paintings from the Momoyama period through the early Edo period, folding screens such as "Rakuchu Rakugaizu" (View in and around Kyoto) and "Famous Places in Kyoto" initially included scenes of the front of Kitano Shrine and the kabuki theatres at Shijo-gawara, and then the "Kabuki folding screens" were created, vividly depicting the customs and events that took place in and around the kabuki theatres. Thus, shibai-e came to play an important role in the genre paintings of the early modern period. If we trace the representative works from each period, such as Okuni Kabuki Soushi (Yamato Bunkakan), Okuni Kabuki Screen (Yamamoto family), Uneme Kabuki Scroll (Tokugawa Reimei-kai), Young Kabuki Screen (Otsuka family), and Kabuki Screen (Inside and Outside Nakamura-za Theater) attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu (Tokyo National Museum), we can understand at a glance the transition in the form of early Kabuki, from Okuni Kabuki to courtesans, young men, and then to Yaro Kabuki. This is why shibai-e not only meet the expectations of art appreciation, but are also valued as valuable pictorial evidence for Kabuki research.

*Some of the terminology used in reference to "Okuni Kabuki Screen" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…すなわち桃山時代から江戸時代初頭にかけての肉筆風俗画では，はじめ〈洛中洛外図〉や〈京名所図〉などの屛風画の一部に，北野神社社頭や四条河原の歌舞伎小屋が描き込まれ，ついで歌舞伎小屋とその周辺にくりひろげられる風俗事象を活写した〈歌舞伎屛風〉が成立する。こうして芝居絵は，いわゆる近世初期風俗画の重要な部分をになうことになるが，残された多くの作例の中から今かりに《阿国歌舞伎草紙》(大和文華館)，《阿国歌舞伎図屛風》(山本家)，《采女（うねめ）歌舞伎図巻》(徳川黎明会)，《若衆歌舞伎図屛風》(大津賀家)，そして伝菱川師宣筆《歌舞伎図(中村座内外図)屛風》(東京国立博物館)という各時期の代表的な作例をたどってみると，お国歌舞伎から遊女，若衆，そして野郎歌舞伎へと展開した初期歌舞伎の様態の変遷を，一目して了解することができる。芝居絵が，単に美術鑑賞の期待にこたえるばかりでなく，歌舞伎研究の貴重な画証資料として尊ばれるゆえんである。…

※「《阿国歌舞伎図屛風》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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