Interior View of a Kabuki Theatre in Edo

Catalog note / 解説

This print is of particular value in documenting the design of Kabuki theatres in the mid-Edo period (1700s). The ceiling is lined with wooden planks from which hang lanterns whose purpose, rather than illumination, is to show the crests of the participating actors, a feature of kaomise-kyogen (the first Kabuki performance of the season). At the rear of the stage are a roof and two supporting columns. The play was performed in front of this, on the large stage that juts out and faces the audience. To the upper left of the stage, hidden by a black curtain, are the musicians. Male teahouse servants thread their way among the audience, bearing food and earthenware teapots. The artist Toyoharu…