, also called "death pictures" or "death portraits", are Japanese woodblock prints,Takeuchi, Melinda. (2005). "Shini-e (Memorial Pictures)," in The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, p. 594. particularly those done in the ukiyo-e style popular through the Edo period (1603–1867) and into the beginnings of the 20th century.
When a kabuki actor died, memorial portraits were conventionally published with his farewell poem and posthumous name.Keyes, Roger et al. (1973). The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints, p. 320; Chin, Connie and Melinda Takeuchi. "Actors' Death Prints: Discovery of a New Genre." Horizons (Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University) Fall 2005, p. 7.
Memorial portraits were created by ukiyo-e artists to honor a colleague or former teacher who had died.
In Osaka, the death of a prominent kabuki actor could prompt several artists to issue commemorative shini-e or tsuizen-e prints simultaneously. Following the death of Arashi Kitsusaburō I in September 1821, for example, several of Osaka's leading print designers issued such prints to mark his career and death.
Gallery
See also List of ukiyo-e terms
References
Bibliography Keyes, Roger S. and Keiko Mizushima. (1973). The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints: a Collection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Japanese woodblock Prints in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. OCLC 186356770 Newland, Amy Reigle. (2005). The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints. Amsterdam : Hotei. ; OCLC 61666175
External links Viewing shini-e "Shini-e: the Performance of Death in Japanese Kabuki Actor Prints" Kuniyoshi project: Shini-e