Cleveland Museum of Art

Album of Actor Portraits

Date

c. 1790–1810

Medium

accordion-style album; ink and color on silk mounted on paper and ink on paper

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The paintings in this album show Kabuki actors costumed for their roles in a variety of plays. The characters are identified in the paper cartouches affixed to the paintings. While each painting is on silk that has been pasted into the album, the poems on some of the facing pages have been written in ink directly onto the page. This album contains paintings of Kabuki actors who performed in the city of Osaka.

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