Sessei
Japanese, active Meiji period (1868-1912)
Meiji Dance Recital
INV-4323
Sessei
Japanese, active Meiji period (1868-1912)1880s
Meiji Dance Recital
Sessei Japanese, active Meiji period (1868-1912) →Japanese (culture or style)woodblock printprint
Date
1880s
Medium
Color woodblock print; surimono
Dimensions
55.5 × 45.6 cm (21 7/8 × 18 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Charles H. Mitchell Collection unrestricted gift
In this print, a musical dance performance takes place on temple grounds under flowering cherry trees. At center stage, a dancer goes through her steps to the accompaniment of three musicians, playing flute, drum, and shamisen. At this spring performance, new members of the dancing and musical schools are presented to the public (just as they are in Japan to this day). Inscriptions on the print provide the names of the two young women who are being presented, Ishida Sen and Ishida Tami, perhaps sisters or members of the same establishment.
Similar presentation surimono, created to highlight new, promising students, were made from the mid-19th century onward. This is a relatively late example and noteworthy for the use of Western aniline dyes and for the incorporation of Western elements like the gentleman at the bottom right.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806
Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
