Description
This work comes from a set of two 6-panelled folding screens. Painted by Hishikawa Moronobu, an ukiyo-e artist during the early Edo period, it depicts a theater used for performances of kabuki, one of Japan's traditional performing arts, though only the left-hand screen is displayed here.
The right of the screen depicts the theater dressing room. It shows familiar backstage scenes of face washing, hair styling, costume donning, and tea making, for instance. In a teahouse adjoining the dressing room on the left, people dance to a musical accompaniment. Some people watch while drinking alcohol, while others gaze at the cherry blossoms. This seems to be a special salon for actors to receive guests. The setting is somewhat different to the regular stage for general customers. This vibrant work depicts each individual in vivid fashion.
At 170 centimeters high, the screen is around 20 centimeters larger than usual. This also suggests it was made by special commission.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
July 20, 2026