Woodblocks display Kabuki's 'rock stars'
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Lindsay Lohan in a Japanese woodblock print?
If the ingenue had been around during Japan's Edo period, it could've happened. That's when artists immortalized kabuki celebrities in their ukiyo-e.
"Ukiyo-e is like the calendar art of their time," said Michael Schuster, curator at the East-West Center Gallery. "They were mass-produced ... the kind of things you'd paste up on your walls or take out to look at your favorite star. I think we're showing that relationship between ukiyo-e and kabuki in a really fun, beautiful way."
A new exhibition at the East-West Center Gallery shows the link between both traditional Japanese art forms.
About 30 woodblock prints — from a recent gift of more than 200 ukiyo-e from the Utagawaha Monjinkai Foundation — are on display through Aug. 24.
In addition, the show brings the 19th-century plays to life with a miniature revolving stage, a theater model and elaborate costumes.
The woodblock-kabuki connection is clear.
"You really couldn't have one with the other," Schuster said.
The traditional Japanese form of theater was the entertainment of the common folk, tackling historical events, moral conflicts and romance. And kabuki actors were stars — to be captured on paper.
"The adulation these folks had (for kabuki actors) is so similar to what we do with our rock stars and movie stars," Schuster said. "They're so dazzling and colorful and fun."
Ukiyo-e also recorded the daily pleasures of life, depicting scenes from brothels to restaurants, of geisha to street entertainers.
Despite its historic label as "low" art, ukiyo-e required remarkable artistry and technical skill. These artists could transform the ordinary into something extraordinary.
And Schuster hopes this exhibition — bolstered by lectures on every aspect of kabuki and ukiyo-e — helps people better understand the art's historic and cultural importance.
"It's not about pretty pictures, but they're pictures that are so immersed in tradition and art form and social context," Schuster said. "And I think that's delightful."
Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.
