Boy with drum

Category

Library Item

Item no

15180

Title

Boy with drum

Description

A boy crouches down whilst holding a drum and sticks. He is wearing an elaborate head-dress with feathers and a carved lion head on it and rope sandals.
The photograph was hand-painted and hand-cut, and then pasted on a black oval background.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

14 x 9.5 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 boy in this picture is a "Kakubeijishi", meaning "Kakubei's lion". 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, but also in 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 young Japanese acrobats in different positions (item no.s 15179 and 15119).

This picture has been cut and the image of the boy has been placed on a black background, in an oval frame. This may be because the photographer was not happy with the orignal background or because he wanted to emphasize on the boy's contortions. This is an unusual practice and only one other photograph in Henry Dyer's collection (the other portrait of a boy acrobat) has been cut in the same way.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Headdresses

People > Children > Boys

People > Entertainment and sports > Musicians

Places > Asia > Japan