Holiday for Kaminari, the Thunder God (Kaminari no Yasumi)
Object Label
This three-sheet composition illustrates the structure and lively atmosphere of a typical Kabuki theater in the late Edo period. The audience sat on three levels and enjoyed snacks and socializing during the daylong performances. Actors often made dramatic entrances along a walkway like the one seen at the left. The artist Utagawa Toyokuni designed this triptych so the central page could be swapped out to show different productions on the stage; at least two other versions of the center page exist. This version shows the theater’s first performance of the 1793 season, a play called Gozen gakari sumo Soga, which featured the first large-scale onstage sword fight. Choreographed sword sparring, called tachimawari, would become a standard element of Kabuki theater.
Caption
Suzuki Harunobu Japanese, 1724–1770. Holiday for Kaminari, the Thunder God (Kaminari no Yasumi), ca. 1768. Woodblock color print, 27 1/4 x 4 13/16 in. (69.2 x 12.2 cm) 27 1/4 x 4 13/16 in. (69.2 x 12.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1119.4. No known copyright restrictions
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Holiday for Kaminari, the Thunder God (Kaminari no Yasumi)
Date
ca. 1768
Period
Edo Period
Geography
Place made: Japan
Medium
Woodblock color print
Classification
Dimensions
27 1/4 x 4 13/16 in. (69.2 x 12.2 cm) 27 1/4 x 4 13/16 in. (69.2 x 12.2 cm)
Signatures
Harunobu-ga, lower left
Credit Line
Brooklyn Museum Collection
Accession Number
X1119.4
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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