Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
'Nakamura Shikan V (Nakamura Utaemon V) in Dojoji (A Maiden at Dojoji)' by Okada Saburosuke (1869-1939), 1908.<br/><br/> Okada Saburosuke (12 January 1869 - 23 September, 1939) was a Japanese yōga (Western-style) painter. He was influenced by great yōga painters such as Kuroda Seiki and Kume Keiichiro, and became one of the founding members of Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society), an artists' association. He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1937, the highest honour in the Japanese cultural world.
This mask for Japanese Noh theatre is worn by the actor who plays the character Yase Onna, or ‘Emaciated woman’.<br/><br/> She is the ghost of a woman who suffered a tragic love affair during her life and whose soul is tormented by the loss of her lover.
Sarugaku, literally 'monkey music', was a form of theatre popular in Japan during the 11th to 14th centuries. It originated from 'sangaku', a form of entertainment reminiscent of the modern-day circus, consisting mostly of acrobatics, juggling, and pantomime, sometimes combined with drum dancing. It came from China to Japan in the 8th century and there mingled with indigenous traditions, particularly the harvest celebrations of Dengaku.<br/><br/> Dengaku were rustic Japanese celebrations that can be classified into two types: those that developed as a musical accompaniment to rice planting observances and the Dengaku dances that developed in conjunction with Sangaku. The Dengaku celebrated for rice planting were performed by villagers either at the new year or during the planting season in early summer. It was only in the 14th century that these dances were brought to the cities and incorporated into Noh theatre. Dengaku was closely linked with the native Japanise religion of Shinto. Ritualistic elements of this were incorporated with Sarugaku to form Noh.