Recognizing Stills of Kabuki Actors: Development and Transition of Theatre Photographs in Japan, 1865-1911

Abstract

So far, theatre photography in Japan in the time between the end of Edo era and the end of Meiji era has received little attention in theatre research: Actors' stills have been seen good for nothing because they were not pictures taken on the stages but in the studios, where actors made up and wore costumes just as if they were having their pictures taken in performances.

My assertion is that this tendency in research should be corrected, because, as in the case of ICHIKAWA Danjuro IX, it is undeniable that we can perceive certain quality of the actor's ideal of acting reflected in his stills. In this context, my paper, seemingly the first attempt to examine the still pictures of Kabuki actors at the time, discusses the significance of those pictures by way of seeing them from the intersection of media- and theatre-history.

The major discussions are two. (1) Although at the beginning the photograph technology was so primitive that it could not surpass the prevailing Ukiyo-e woodcut as the mainstream to portray Kabuki actors' images, the technological developments both in photographing and printing changed the situation in such a way that theatre photographs now became a popular media “genre.” (2) In the 1890's, Kabuki was regarded as an old-fashioned theatrical form, which led to see Kabuki as a historical phenomenon whose arts should be preserved by being photographed.