#onnagata

Kishin Shinoyama, Bandō Tamasaburō, circa 1971.

Yatsuhashi (Bandō Tamasaburō V) glances back at a smitten Jirozaemon in Kagotsurube Sato no Eizame

Day 6: Kabuki for @tobiizusummer

Yuna Sanobo was in the early half of the 20th Century a well-known female impersonator (Onnagata) of the Japanese Kabuki Theatre. He also continued his role in his private life and lived as a woman. He was married to one of his special patrons.

Black hair falling like ink poured from a well. Pale skin catching no light, holding no shadow. Rust and iron at the wrists. Utagawa Kunimasa's "Bust Portrait of Iwai Kumesaburo" is an actor frozen mid-becoming - someone else's body worn like armor. And speaking of armor: those hexagonal chain-mail kote, the green-laced dō plates, the weapon shaft rising diagonally behind the shoulder. A warrior's costume. But the face beneath the white hachimaki belongs to an onnagata - a male actor specializing in female roles. Kumesaburo was one of the most celebrated onnagata of the 1790s. So here's your question: Kunimasa studied under one of ukiyo-e's most famous masters. Who was his teacher? A) Kitagawa Utamaro B) Tōshūsai Sharaku C) Utagawa Toyokuni I D) Katsushika Hokusai The family name gives it away - in ukiyo-e, your school name was your inheritance. The answer is C. Kunimasa was Toyokuni I's most gifted pupil, and he was dead by twenty-seven. This print - now in the Rijksmuseum - is one of the few things that outlasted him. The bokashi clouds greying behind the figure like a curtain about to close. Quelle: meisterdrucke.com

Recently watched Kokuho and was inspired to dress up one of my already kabuki inspired ocs as an onnagata :)

I hope you enjoy this drag wearing Dragon!