Theater, Art Deco, Le Kabuki Japonais, Alexandre Iacovleff, Otoko-date, 1938, Giclee, Aleksandr Yakovlev, Japan, 1938

Plate 24. The actor Onoe Kirkugoro is acting the role of Tatsugoro, a vigorous and faithful otoko-date, leader of a high profile organization. He is the principal character in the play "Magumi No Kenka" in which he must resolve a building conflict with an equally powerful organization.

Description:  Dressed in a caramel-colored cloke and white head wrap that covers his mouth, Tatsugoro, has his right hand flexed ready to strike. An accomplice scowls over his right shoulder. Both men have eye makeup applied to amplify their menacing intentions. Print colors are caramel, black and white.

Archival Limited Edition Giclee print after the original heliogravure by Russian artist Alexander Evgenievich Iacovleff for Kabuki Japonais, published in 1838, the year of his death.

Print Size = 28 x 38 cm / 11 1/6 x  15 1/6 inches

Issued with Archival Limited Edition Certificate

Cultural Role of Otoko-date

Otoko-date were akin to street thugs in popular Edo period literature, theater, and everyday culture in the early Tokugawa shogunate, that lasted from 1600 to 1868. They were closely related to the machiyakko. This was an era of urban and economic development. It was important to maintain neighborhood power which was achieved by using bullying and violent tactics.