Japanese Print "A Wakashu Sanemori (Yaro Sanemori)" by Okumura Masanobu
Artist:Okumura Masanobu
Title:A Wakashu Sanemori (Yaro Sanemori)
Date:about 1712
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
Yaro (rascal, rogue) were chiefly wakashu-gata actors (i.e. impersonators of handsome young rascal dandies). An old actor is here shown in his dressing-room on the second floor of a theater, seated before a mirror-stand and having his hair painted black by a younger wakashu-gata. He is thus a comic misrepresentation of the famous soldier Saito Betto Sanemori (1111-1183 AD) who served under Minamoto Yoshitomo and later under Taira Munemori. Before going into the battle of Shinowara in Kaga, in which he was killed, he dyed his hair so that he would appear to be a young man. In the street below, is another wakashu-gata who has just emerged from a theater and is followed by a boy servant who is carrying a towel and looks back at a young boy who peers at him around the shoji.
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