Comparable to the celebrity culture surrounding movie and television stars today, Kabuki attracted enormous attention in nineteenth century Japan. Exhibition co-curators Natsu Oyobe and Mariko Okada will explore the methods used by print artists to create these spectacular and much-loved Kabuki actor prints, as well as the cultural context of their production.
Mariko Okada is Associate Professor at Faculty of Humanities, J. F. Oberlin University, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Okada received her Ph.D. from Waseda University in Tokyo in 2011. Her book The Birth of Kyōmai: Inoue-ryu Dance in Nineteenth-Century Kyoto, Japan was released in 2013 and received several awards. Her current research interest is fan culture of Kabuki and diversities of Kabuki culture. Dr. Okada is the co-curator for Japanese Prints of Kabuki Theater from the Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Natsu Oyobe is UMMA's Curator for Asian Art and co-curator for Japanese Prints of Kabuki Theater from the Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
