Female Kabuki Costume (Uchikake)
Artist/Culture
Japanese
DateLate Edo Period (1603–1868)
ClassificationsCostumes and Accessories
Credit LineGift of Miss Priscilla Crane
Object number1984.29
Label TextThis costume, worn by an onnagata (male actor who plays women's roles) in Kabuki theater, is known as akahime (red princess). It is worn for the role of a princess or the daughter of a high-ranking samurai. Although all kimono are cut alike, one can determine the age and marital status of the wearer, as well as the season of the year, by its details. Unmarried girls and young wives wear long swinging sleeves (furisode). For this role the onnagata wears an underkimono held closed by a stiff wide sash (obi) wrapped around the waist and tied. He wears a loose red uchikake over it. The long-tailed phoenix, a felicitous symbol, appears frequently on the back of the akahime costume.
Kabuki, one of the three major forms of classical Japanese theater, was the most popular type of stage entertainment among the townsmen and noveau-riche merchants of the Edo period (1600-1868). It is a visually extravagant theater, the name of which originally connoted an unusual and shocking entertainment. Beginning in the early seventeenth century as a variety show of dance, song and comic sketches, it developed into a dramatic form with realistic dialogue and stylized acting performed by adult male actors.
The actor and his costume are primary elements in creating the visual effects of Kabuki, but unlike no theater in which the stage is bare, the sets are also dazzling. Costumes, wigs, and make-up are carefully matched in order to characterize a role. Patterns and colors are selected for their effectiveness on the stage. Habitual playgoers can recognize the type of play and role by the costumes. Those worn in dance pieces are especially noted for their color, design and workmanship. Just as movie wardrobes have influenced popular taste in twentieth-century America, these theatrical kimono, together with the obi (sash) and accessories, affected fashion. No costumes were preserved by No masters and aristocratic collectors, but few Kabuki costumes survive from earlier periods. They were kept in theater warehouses and eventually worn out by repeated use.
Knowledge of Kabuki costume is based in large part on its representation in woodblock prints. The Worcester Art Museum's Kabuki costumes were probably worn by traveling players who performed in the United States in the late nineteenth century and were not used in Japanese Kabuki theaters.
ProvenanceMiss Priscilla Crane, New YorkOn View
Not on view