“Act II, Scene 2: Along Train Tracks in America,” from the series The Strange Tale of the Castaways: A Western Kabuki
Adachi Ginkō Japanese
Not on view
Ginkō depicts a scene from a contemporary Kabuki play—conceived as a flamboyant showcase of all things Western—by the noted playwright Kawatake Mokuami (1816–1893). The central subject, the actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX, is portraying a Japanese sailor who, after being shipwrecked in the United States, is traveling by train and is attacked by two Native Americans who have derailed the steam locomotive. For Japanese print artists, there was no template for depicting Native Americans, and Ginkō’s representations evoke both Buddhist religious art, in which demons are represented with red skin, and stereotypical images of Native Americans created by white Americans and Europeans.
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