Kawase Hasui

1883-1957

Collection of the Theater Photo Album: Vol. 6 (7 issues)
(Engei shashin cho: dai roku maki)

each with lithograph covers and frontispieces by Kawase Hasui; the collection includes: January, February, March, May, June, October, and November issue, 1927

each magazine approximately 8 3/4 by 11 3/4 in., 22.3 by 30 cm

Each frontispiece is numbered within the series Sanju-rokunin kashu (Collection of Thirty-six Anthologies.) Volume 6 includes 12 issues that starts with sono nijugo (no.25). The actors and their roles include: January cover with actor Nakamura Fukusuke of Osaka as Menoto Masaoka, frontispiece with Onoe Matsusuke as Kyusaku; February cover with actor Ichikawa Ennosuke as Togitatsu with stage, frontispiece with Sawada Shojiro as Ii Tairo; March cover with actor Onoe Kikugoro as Kamuro Tayori and the stage of Modorikago, frontispiece with Hanayanagi Shotaro as Kyoko from Daini no seppun; May cover with actor Jitsukawa Enjaku as Heiemon with stage, frontispiece with Ichikawa Sansho as Ya no Negoro; June cover with actor Morita Kanya as Fukuoka Mitsugi, frontispiece with Nakamura Tokizo as Osono; October cover with actor Nakamura Kichiemon as Kezori Kuemon, frontispiece with Ichikawa Sumizo as Goraku Juso; and November cover with actor Nakamura Ganjiro as Kamiya Jihe, frontispiece with Kataoka Gado as Yaegiri.

During a period which began in late 1925 through 1927, Hasui broke away from the landscape format which had become his specialty and produced designs for the kabuki magazine Engei Shashincho (Theater Photo Album), sometimes producing both the cover and frontispiece for an issue, other times one or the other along with designs by contemporaries such as Natori Shunsen (1886-1960), the artist who specialized in kabuki subjects in the circle of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962).

Reference & Published:
Kendall Brown, Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2014, p. 11, cat. III.19 (Onoe Kikunosuke II as Young Kamuro, Tayori, cover illustration for Engei shashincho, March 1927, this copy illustrated)

(inv. no. C-3239c)

price: $1,750