Actor Onoe Shōroku II as Danshichi Kurobei, from the series Gendai butai geika (Flowers of the Modern Stage)

The portfolio Flowers of the Modern Stage featured beautifully produced portraits that celebrated Japanese actors of the modern era. The vivid color, naturalism, and painterly quality shown in the prints attest to the highest technical craftsmanship as well as the uncertain status of woodblock printmaking in the twentieth century.

Although some starring roles were new—newly written for film and stage, or adapted from Western drama—others were time-hallowed characters of traditional Japanese theater. Here, Onoe Shōroku II (1913-1989) is depicted as the rough but heroic fishmonger Danshichi Kurobei, a laborer's loin cloth revealing his full-body tattoos. The character was developed for theater based on real events, when a fishmonger slew a man in winter of 1697 and hid the body, which lay undiscovered until the snow melted the following spring.

Onoe Shōroku II (1913-1989) performed under that stage name from March 1935 until his retirement shortly before his death. Endowed with a powerful physique, he specialized in "rough stuff" male roles, such as smugglers and thieves, and is considered one of the finest kabuki actors of the mid-20th century. Here he is depicted in full-body tattoo, wearing nothing more than a loin cloth, for the role of the fishmonger Danshichi Kurobei. Danshichi's character is based on a historical event of 1697, when an Osaka fisherman slew an enemy. The body was buried in snow and not discovered until the following summer. The event was first dramatized for the kabuki stage the following year, and revived in 1745 in the play Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami (Summer Festival, Mirror of Osaka). Featuring the most spectacular murder scene in the kabuki repertoire, the play is still regularly staged today.

2019 Dramatic Impressions: Japanese Actor Prints Portland Art Museum