Arai Kōu 荒井晃雨 (Ac. early 20th century)

The Jōruri Chanter at a Puppet Theater

Hanging scroll, colors, gofun, ink and gold on silk

Signature: Kōu 晃雨
Seal: Takako多加子
Inscription: »Arai Kōu« 荒井晃雨
»Beautiful woman as puppeteer« 人形使ひ美人

In this oversized scroll a beautiful woman is seated, hands folded, behind the stage of a bunraku theater. She is taking a rest and wears a slightly melancholy expression, the artist perhaps imagining the moment after an exhausting performance or the nervous moments before a challenging appearance. Behind her, on the wall, is a program of the performances of the day and, to the left, the two protagonists of the play, a beautiful courtesan with an elaborate hairdo and a finely-dressed samurai. The clothing style of both figures indicates the Edo period, the setting for most of the classical bunraku plays. We know that the woman must be a jōruri chanter from the songbook with notations placed in front of her and that she also plays the samisen from the instrument placed behind her and the samisen equipment box placed next to her on the floor.

For most of the Edo period, the bunraku theater was even more important than the kabuki theater and most of the classic plays used on the kabuki stage have their origins in the bunraku theater. Interestingly the bunraku theater was not an exclusive male world. For example, the Kiyomoto 清元 School, the main group of both jōruri chanters and samisen players, had important female members and leaders. Particularly famous are the two nineteenth-century leaders Kiyomoto Enjudayū IV (1832 –1904) and his wife, Kiyomoto Oyō (1840 –1901), the daughter of Enjudayū II (1802 – 55). Both are thought to have been among the greatest performers in the history of the school; Oyō, in particular, is considered to have been the greatest female jōruri performer and composer in the history of the art form. In other words, by placing a woman performer in this painting, the artist was not making a startling statement, but was instead referring to a long tradition.

Of note, however, is the way that the artist is making a psychological study. The mood of the woman forms the central point of interest of the painting. Just what brought forth this feeling is of course part of the attraction of the painting: we do not know. Also new is the startling color palette of the painting: the combination of salmon pink, lime green, faded purple and others would have been unimaginable a few decades earlier. We clearly see the influx of new ideas and techniques, many coming from the West, that marks the interesting creative impetus of the Taishō period. A recent catalog has explored the visions of this era1; this painting similarly illustrates the attempts by Japanese artists to combine the modern with the traditional, the West with Japan.

The artist is one of the many new artists springing forth at this time. We know that she was a female artist, named Arai Takako, and that her artist name was Kōu, all from the information on the painting. We can surmise from her artist name that her teacher could have been either Tasuku Kōriku 佐晃陸, Takei Kōriku 武井晃陸, or Hiroshima Kōfu 広島晃甫, three noted artists working in Tokyo at this time.2 However, little more is known of the artist, despite her obvious talents. As can be seen in the aforementioned catalogue, there are definite limits to our knowledge of artists from this period.3 For one thing, the great Kantō earthquake, which marked the unfortunate end of the Taishō era, killed a number of promising artists, along with their documentary records. Despite the relative proximity of this painting to our time, we may never discover who created this melancholy beauty,
sitting backstage by herself.

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