Actor Bando Shiuka Playing the Courtesan Yamanaya Urazato

Kabuki theater developed during the early decades of the seventeenth century as dances performed by women near the riverbanks in Kyoto. Considered an affront to public morals, first women and then young boys were banned from the Kabuki stage. It became a wildly popular form of theater in Edo, but all the female roles were played by men in costume. In Utagawa Tokyokuni’s depiction of Bando Shiuka, the purple cloth visible above the actor’s forehead shows that this is a man with a shaved forelock playing a woman. Actors who played these roles were called “onnagata” and some lived as women off-stage as well. Their clothing set fashion trends for merchant class women in the city. Tôshûsai Sharaku was known for his un-idealized images showing the masculine features of the actors.

- This description was written by art historian Hilary K. Snow, PhD. Honors College Lecturer in Art History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee"