Tsuruya Kokei: Onoe Baiko as the Demon Ibaraki

Artist: Tsuruya Kokei (Born 1946)
Title: Onoe Baiko as Demon Ibaraki
Date: July, 1993

Dramatic closeup of Onoe Baiko as the Demoness Ibaraki. He wears the white wig and makeup of this famous kabuki character. Looking closely we see that s/he is clutching her severed arm;  (compare to the Chikanobu triptych that we have of the same scene.) As noted on the British Museum website, Tsuruya Kokei is one of postwar Japan’s leading designers of woodblock theater prints. Kokei’s father was the print artist Nakazawa Hiromitsu. Kokei’s woodblock prints are self-carved and self-printed on thin gampi paper and are often topped with a thick layer of mica to the finished print, as here. From the series Bust Portraits Series IX, this is work number 143. Numbered 46/90, from a limited edition. Includes the Kokei-kai certificate.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. 
Literature: See Cornell University, British Museum, Smith, Lawrence, 'Modern Japanese Prints 1912-1989: Woodblocks and Stencils', BMP, London, 1994, p. 37 and nos 139-40.

Kabuki-za (Theatre), Tokyo (ed.), 'Tsuruya Kokei: Kabuki actor prints', Shochiku Co., Tokyo, 1988.

Dimensions: 38.2 x 24.8 cm

SKU: KOK010S