The Actor Bandö Juzaburö as Seigoro

Catalog note / 解説

This print depicts the actor Bandö Jüzaburö in a sumö wrestler role. Natori Shunsen first studied Japanese-style painting (nihonga). However, he abandoned his practice of nihonga in 1919 and turned his attention to theatrical subjects instead. The famed publisher Watanabe Shözaburö published a series of actor prints by Shunsen, Portraits of Male Actors in Various Roles, 1925-1929, with one print design for each month. This series was included in a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary Japanese art at the Toledo Museum in 1930. This exhibition was held in Honolulu in 1931, and the founder of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mrs. C.M. Cooke, Sr., purchased this print with some others for th…