Thursday, December 13, 2018

Japanese actor playing a foreigner

The Actor Onoe Kikugorō V as the Englishman Spencer (from the series One Hundred Roles of Baikō, 1893), Toyohara Kunichika. Courtesy Cincinnati Art Museum

Japanese were fascinated by the strange customs, dress, and even food of the foreigners who arrived in their land. (Tempura was originally a Portuguese dish adapted by Japanese cooks.) This print shows a Japanese actor, Onoe Kikugoro V, playing an Englishman named Spencer who apparently demonstrated a hot-air balloon in Japan.

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