Kabuki Party

In this print, Japanese American artist Roger Shimomura combines an image of a kabuki star with that of an American movie star, Marilyn Monroe. He borrowed the kabuki image from a popular Japanese ukiyo-e print, the image of Marilyn from a painting by Pop artist Andy Warhol and the stylized brushstroke from Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Kabuki, a form of classical Japanese dance theater, was popular from 1603 to 1868 in the red-light district of the city we now know as Tokyo. Many consider kabuki the beginning of pop culture in Japan.