Kabuki : Japanese theatre prints

Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland looking at Japanese theatre prints which were made as souvenirs for theatre goers in the 19th century.

Kabuki is a type of stylised theatre including dance, drama, music and acrobatics. Most of the posters were a triptych design with a continuous background but one actor on each sheet. The pictures from Tokyo were in pale muted colours but the ones from Osaka were bolder. There were also pictures of actors off duty which showed a sense of the celebrity culture we see now such as a scene from a calligraphy shop.

My favourite was called Dakoku Dancers and showed 2 dancers in almost tartan trousers doing a rather stompy dance in a street with a dramatic vanishing point behind the central figure. 

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