Miyagawa Shuntei (宮川春汀: 1873-1914) (artist 1873 – 1914)
Actor applying his makeup from the story of 'The Mirror and the Sword'.
1913
12.375 in x 8.75 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Shuntei ga (春汀画)
National Diet Library - black and white reproduction of the front cover of the publication this print appears in
National Diet Library - black and white reproduction of this print This print is a kuchi-e found near the front of a publication by Kazando in 1913 featuring a story, 'The Mirror and the Sword' by Emi Suiin (江見水蔭: 1869-1938). It tells the story of a teenage boy whose mother dies. After his father remarries, the boy finds out that he can't get along with his new stepmother, so he moves out of the home and goes to live with an old nanny who lives in a simple, rundown fishing village. Rather than resign himself to such a dismal lifestyle he starts traveling around the countryside. He joins a group of itinerant actors and his brought along as 'their daughter'. The daughter's mirror indicates that the young boy is meant to play the roles of an onnagata.
The title 'The Mirror and the Sword' is a clue to an underlying theme of this story and the true nature of someone's identity. Was he the birth child of a feminine side, the mirror, or of a masculine side, the sword?
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There is a stamp in purple ink of the Fujiwara Drugstore in Tajima. It is on the left side of the print. However, to date we have been unable to find out any information about this 'drugstore in Tajima'.
Magazine or book frontispiece (kuchi-e - 口絵) (genre)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)