Segawa Kikunojo, in a Female Role 1762 - 1819

Curator: Looking at this, my first thought is bamboo; both the delicate screen behind the figure, but also the lean strength embodied in the subject's stance. There’s an intriguing duality at play here. Editor: I am drawn to this exquisite woodblock print titled "Segawa Kikunojo, in a Female Role" by Katsukawa Shun'ei, dating sometime between 1762 and 1819. It depicts the actor Segawa Kikunojo, celebrated for playing female roles, or onnagata, and presently residing in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: It’s fascinating how this Ukiyo-e print presents this cultural artifact, the "onnagata" role in Japanese theater. In assuming female roles, these actors weren't simply imitating women, but were crafting an ideal image, which shaped audience's desires and views. How this is rendered here seems interesting... Editor: Well, think about the making of the thing itself. This image wasn't conjured; the creation required carved wooden blocks, meticulously inked and pressed onto paper multiple times, each color demanding a new block. The labor inherent in this medium interests me – and how print culture made such representations broadly accessible. What meaning did it grant to gender on the stage versus a wider audience? Curator: Absolutely! The fact that prints circulated allowed for the propagation of such ideals of beauty and feminine identity to broader audiences. Notice also the symbolism present in her robes; that circular emblem perhaps denotes the theatrical troupe with which Kikunojo was affiliated? The choice of specific colors and patterns would contribute layers of meaning about status, character, and the specific play the actor was involved in. Editor: We have to remember the conditions of theatrical labor as well. Woodblock prints celebrating actors amplified the fame, and probably also the economic circumstances of the subject. However, there's a stark material reality underpinning the glamour of these representations – the hard, manual labor that actually went into production of prints! Curator: So, thinking about our own cultural lens when looking at this print now, do you see continuities with how celebrity functions, or perhaps breaks that help to really establish how theater was, and wasn’t, like what we might expect today? Editor: Well, one thing is very different, though that does continue as well: material production and manual skills seem increasingly distant in an age of digital reproductions. It encourages a real nostalgia, or almost yearning, for things created directly by hand! Curator: Indeed. This print holds layers of artistic intent, skillful making, and social history waiting to be peeled away with each viewing.