{"id":19086,"date":"2023-06-05T16:18:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/?page_id=19086"},"modified":"2023-06-06T10:20:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T14:20:17","slug":"bando-minosuke-and-sawamura-kunitaro-biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/exhibitions\/bando-minosuke-and-sawamura-kunitaro-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Band\u014d Minosuke and Sawamura Kunitar\u014d Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color\">Band\u014d Minosuke (Japanese, active 1832-1858) and Sawamura Kunitar\u014d (Japanese, active 1798-1936)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Kabuki actors Band\u014d Minosuke and Sawamura Kunitaro are difficult to pinpoint precisely because, like many performers, they used stage names. Not only that, but names could be inherited or co-opted, thus allowing a theater name to subsist for generations. Kabuki is a form of theater that originated as comic dances and transformed into full dramatic productions. While both men and women acted in the plays originally, in 1629, the government banned all women from performances, believing that it was tied to prostitution. From that day forward, all the roles are played by men, with actors who specialize exclusively in female roles referred to as Onnagata (\u5973\u5f62 or \u5973\u65b9), meaning \u201cfemale style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Band\u014d Minosuke in our collection is likely Band\u014d Minosuke III, who was adopted by Band\u014d Minosuke II and initially given the performing name Band\u014d Toyosabur\u014d III. He assumed the Minosuke name in 1832 (when Minosuke II became Band\u014d Mitsugoro IV) and performed under it until 1851 when he took the name Morita Matasaburo. He disappeared from playbills in 1858.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sawamura Kunitaro image is likely of Sawamura Kunitaro II, who held that name from 1819 to his death in 1836, the year this print was made. Sawamura was a distinguished onnagata performer, who specialized in playing wives, commoner and noble, in domestic dramas and political intrigues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" data-id=\"14895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/01\/blank-image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14895\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" data-id=\"14895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/01\/blank-image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14895\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" data-id=\"14895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/01\/blank-image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14895\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Band\u014d Minosuke (Japanese, active 1832-1858) and Sawamura Kunitar\u014d (Japanese, active 1798-1936) Kabuki&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1626,"featured_media":0,"parent":1152,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-19086","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19126,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19086\/revisions\/19126"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}