Actor Iwai Tojaku in a Prostitute Role c. 1830s

This is Utagawa Kunisada’s woodblock print of Actor Iwai Tojaku in a Prostitute Role, made sometime in the 19th century. Kunisada, as a leading printmaker of his time, captured the floating world of the Edo period which was a time of economic growth and shifting social structures. In this context, the representation of a male actor in a female role speaks volumes about the fluidity of gender and performance in Japanese society. Consider the actor's pose, gaze, and elaborate costume. What does it tell us about the construction of identity and the theatricality of gender? The Kabuki theatre, where such roles were performed, offered a space for exploring and questioning societal norms. The male actor embodies the female role, blurring the lines between genders and challenging our understanding of identity as fixed. Kunisada invites us to reflect on the multifaceted nature of identity, its performance, and its reception within a specific cultural moment.