Acteurs Segawa Michisaburo I en Bando Mitsugoro III c. 1804

Curator: The subdued palette immediately pulls me in. It feels melancholy, almost resigned. What do you see? Editor: Here we have Utagawa Toyokuni I's woodblock print, “Acteurs Segawa Michisaburo I en Bando Mitsugoro III," circa 1804. The work currently resides at the Rijksmuseum. My first reaction looks beyond the aesthetic towards power and representation, how figures in Kabuki, gender, and class are represented in Ukiyo-e art. Curator: Ukiyo-e, “pictures of the floating world.” Floating implies ephemeral, dreams, or something elusive just beyond reach... like those Kabuki actors playing different gender roles that mirror the fluidity of life. It seems to point to something more profound about fleeting moments and performative identities. Editor: Absolutely, and those fleeting moments were hardly free of social structures. Kabuki was intensely popular, yes, but it also existed within rigid hierarchies. While this print seems a simple portrait, its artistic decisions reflect those societal tensions. Note how the male actor's face seems set and burdened, whereas the female actor is softer and in an ostensibly nurturing pose. It subtly perpetuates certain gendered expectations, doesn't it? Curator: I see what you mean about the burdened expression... perhaps an intentional mirroring of the onnagata’s artifice. Editor: I appreciate the nuance of this style. Genre painting, portraits... but this all comes back to identity. The print’s power doesn't just stem from the beauty of line or the flat planes of colour. Toyokuni situates us squarely within an important moment to view Kabuki performers. What’s left to decode, after the curtain closes? Curator: It's true; what are the codes behind performance? After our fleeting interaction here today with this artwork, there is perhaps even more revealed as a kind of lingering performance and presence in our discussion about it now, echoing onward...