Description
The Okuni <I>kabuki</I> troupe came from Izumo Province (present-day Shimane Prefecture) and began performing their <I>kabuki odori</I> (<I>kabuki</I> dancing) on the Noh stage of Kitano Shrine in 1603. Because the stage depicted on this screen is thought to be the Kitano stage, the work is assumed to have been painted after 1603. <P>
On the stage we see an actor holding a sword, a woman of the tea-house (sitting by the pillar), and a <I>saruwaka</I> clown wearing a towel over his head. These three characters indicate that we are looking at a performance of <I>Chaya Asobi</I> <I>(Spree at the Teahouse)</I>, the representative play of the Okuni <I>kabuki</I> troupe. The musicians play only flutes and drums, and not <I>shamisen</I>, indicating that this was an early performance.<P>
The effective placement of pine trees within the composition is similar to other sliding door paintings, such as those in the Myoren-ji Temple, suggesting the strong possibility that this screen was painted by the Hasegawa school.
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