Young acrobats performing a lion dance

Category

Library Item

Item no

15119

Title

Young acrobats performing a lion dance

Description

Two children acrobats and a man pose for a photograph in an outdoor setting. They wear carved lion heads and feathers on top of their headdresses. They have matching traditional garments and two of them wear straw sandals. The man crouching down in the middle holds a drum and sticks while the kids are executing simple dance moves.

Behind them is a stone wall and in the upper part of the photograph is a glass window; the building seems to be in Western style.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

24 x 19.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.

This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers.

The man and kids in this picture are "Kakubeijishi", meaning "Kakubei's lions". These were street performers, usually aged between five and fifteen, who did acrobatics known as "Echigo Jishi" (the 'lion's dance'). The boys would execute handstands and somersaults while their master would play the drums.

Legend says that Kakubeijishi appeared during the Edo period (1603-1868) in the province of Echigo (today in the Niigata Prefecture, in north-central Japan). Farmers in the village of Tsukigata-mura were suffering from floods that continually damaged their harvests and villagers were starving. One of them, a farmer called Kabukei, decided to teach his two sons acrobatics in order to earn some money. Their performance became highly popular and soon, many children in the village joined them. One day, Kabukei got killed. During the fight, he bit off his murderer's toe who still managed to escape without being identified. In order to find their father's murderer and avenge him, Kabukei's sons started to look for somebody with a missing toe. For this purpose, they included in their performances a large number of handstands, so that they could see people's feet without being noticed.

It is not known if the two brothers found their father's murderer, nor if Kabukei ever existed. However, these acrobatics became highly popular in the Edo and Meiji periods and deeply influenced the music and dance of the time. It was an attractive sight for Western visitors and a popular subject for photographers who could take their picture in the streets, shrines and temples where they commonly performed. It is still possible to see these acrobatics today in Niigata City, every year on the fourth Sunday of June.

There are two other photographs in Henry Dyer's collection showing these young acrobats in different positions (items no. 15179 and 15180).

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Headdresses

People > Children > Boys

People > Entertainment and sports > Acrobats

People > Entertainment and sports > Musicians

People > Entertainment and sports > Street entertainers

Places > Asia > Japan