Entry by Eric Carvente:Kabuki Actor Onoe Kikugorō I

This is an image of a person named kikugoro, in two forms. In the real-life setting, Kikugoro is dressed in the costume of a female character and in the picture on the wall he/she is depicted as a man. This is because during the time female and young children were banned from performing. That meant that men had to take on the role of becoming female actors. That is the reason why in this art piece we see that the artists decided to draw a female and male version of the same person. There is also a lot of red in the art piece. For example on the robe and on the picture frame. That is because in kabuki theater the color red has a symbolic meaning which is peace and prosperity of the family. That is why we see a lot of red on the clothing of the actors. In conclusion from the image we can see that men were forced to play female character roles because females and children were banned from performing during the time period.

Author: Eric Carvente