Kumadori refers to the makeup worn by Kabuki actors in Japan. The intricate patterns and colors of this makeup symbolize specific characters, allowing the Kabuki audience to readily identify the nature of the role portrayed by an actor – be it a hero, a villain, a ghost, or another character archetype.
Understanding Kumadori: The Essence of Kabuki Makeup
Kumadori is the theatrical makeup used to accentuate specific traits of a character in Kabuki performances, aiding the audience in understanding the character's nature.
The makeup's pattern and colors hold distinct meanings, with the pattern remaining constant for each role.
Red symbolizes strength and passion.
Indigo blue and black represent fear and malevolence, often worn by villains and demons.
Green signifies ghosts or supernatural beings.
Purple signifies nobility.
Exploring the Legacy of Ota Masamitsu
Masamitsu Ota (1892-1975) was a designer of Kabuki Actor prints in the shin hanga style during the late 1940s and 1950s. Despite being overshadowed by the renowned Kabuki actor portrayer Natori Shunsen, Masamitsu Ota's prints experienced a resurgence in collector appreciation during the 1990s.
Exploring Kabuki Makeup: Woodblock Prints by Ota Masamitsu
These prints are sourced from the album "Kabuki Kumadori" (Kumadori makeups for Kabuki), Volume 1, which contained kumadori designs preserved in the Ichikawa family's archives. Ichikawa Shinjuro III, later known as Ichikawa Danshichi (1867 - 1929), made significant efforts to conserve numerous kumadori designs from the past. Collaborating with the Shin Hanga master Masamitsu Ota, this album is regarded as a vital document showcasing kumadori designs in Japanese performing arts.
Shibaraku is one of the 'kabuki juhachiban', the 18 kabuki plays of Ichikawa Danjuro. Among fans of the Japanes kabuki theater the play 'Shibaraku' is maybe the best known and the most popular one. Subscribe to the artelino youtube channel.
Kumadori is makeup used for theatrical performances. Specifically, Kabuki — a stylized form of Japanese theater, which is known for its spectacular drama and the intricate makeup worn by the actors. Kumadori makeup emphasizes the actors' underlying muscles and veins to evoke dramatic emotions and expressions.
Red kumadori indicates a powerful hero role, often a character with virtue and courage. The most famous role to use red kumadori is that of the hero in Shibaraku, Kamakura Gongoro, and has come to stereotypically represent kabuki in the West.
Understanding Kumadori: The Essence of Kabuki Makeup
Red symbolizes strength and passion. Indigo blue and black represent fear and malevolence, often worn by villains and demons. Green signifies ghosts or supernatural beings. Purple signifies nobility.
The colour of the kumadori is an expression of the character's nature: red lines are used to indicate passion, heroism, righteousness, and other positive traits; blue or black, villainy, jealousy, and other negative traits; green, the supernatural; and purple, nobility.
Kumadori claims to be a sennin (仙人?, a type of hermit in Japanese folklore who can control even their body's autonomic functions, as well as live forever), which explains his ability to suddenly gain or lose weight by controlling the digestion and absorption of food, and the ability to control his hair.
This makeup is applied heavily to create a brightly painted mask that uses colors in symbolic ways to indicate the age, gender, and class of each character, as well as their moods and personalities.
One characteristic style of kabuki makeup is called kumadori, in which the color and the way of painting the lines changes according to the role. From left: RED for youth, justice, anger and bombastic strength, especially in aragoto style plays. INDIGO for a villain or evil spirit.
All-male casts became the norm after 1629, when women were banned from appearing in kabuki due to the prevalent prostitution of actresses and violent quarrels among patrons for the actresses' favors.
The term kabuki originally suggested the unorthodox and shocking character of this art form. In modern Japanese, the word is written with three characters: ka, signifying “song”; bu, “dance”; and ki, “skill.”
Other common colors are pink representing youth or cheerfulness, light blue or green representing calm, purple for nobility, brown for selfishness, and black for fear. There are about a hundred different mask-like styles of kumadori makeup.
Another symbolism of kabuki masks and makeup varies depending on the character and emotions being portrayed such as warriors, demons, and old men or conveying different emotions, such as anger, sadness, and joy. Also, some common themes in kabuki theatre include beauty, power, and tragedy.
Kabuki makeup, called kesho, came in two types: standard makeup applied to most actors and kumadori makeup which was applied to villains and heroes. While there were hundreds of types of kumadori, only around fifteen types are still in use.
Blue - Calm and Tranquility (Blue is often associated with calm, tranquility, and peace. In kabuki, blue makeup is worn by actors playing serene, harmonious characters).
It is said that kumadori makeup was begun by Ichikawa Danjuro I, who created the bold and strong aragoto (exaggerated) style of Kabuki. The colors used for the kuma each have their own meaning.
The following are the basic color meanings. Red is used for virtuous characters, as it denotes loyalty and virtuousness. Black is used for brave or blunt characters, often seen on military leaders to denote integrity or used to indicate that the character is abrupt.
Final Answer: The Japanese make-ups express the mood or message of their art through the use of specific colors, lines, and masks that emphasize the emotions and characteristics of the characters, as well as the overall theme of the performance.
Kabuki actors wore thick makeup designed to express the characters they represented. Red stripes around cheeks and eyes signified power and youth, and indigo blue signified a negative attribute.
The history of a geisha's iconic makeup goes back to the Heian Period (794-1185) where nobility wore the white paste in front of the emperor so that their faces would stand out in the candlelight.
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