Anatomy of the Cross-dressed Geisha
Figure 2. Utagawa Hiroshige II and Utagawa Kunisada, “Hiyoshi Sanno Festival” in Thirty-six Scenes of the Pride of Edo, 1864. American University Archives and Special Collections, Washington DC.
Slide details to see the clothing counterpart!
An Image at the Crossroads
Ukiyo-e translates to “floating world pictures” and originates from the Buddhist concept Of Ukiyo, which describes the ephemeral nature of reality. In the Edo period, the term was applied to urban culture, which meant that since the pleasures of the city were momentary, one should enjoy them fully while they last.[1] Ukiyo-e covers many artworks and cannot be defined like we do stylistic movements (i.e., Impressionism, Surrealism, etc.). Ukiyo-e works usually depict a set range of pictorial subjects, including Fukei-e (Views/landscape pictures), Bijinga (Beautiful woman pictures), Kabuki-e (Kabuki pictures), Musha-e (Samurai/historical pictures), and Shunga (Erotica). What unites these images, according to David Bell, is that in these works, “…it is not common life that is represented, but a more rarified and remote world of highly refined manners, witty literary repartee, and sexual and theatrical pleasures…”[2] Therefore, Ukiyo-e prints were not just straightforward depictions of various subjects but depictions that filtered these subjects through the lens of a cosmopolitan culture interested in seeing their lifestyle reproduced back to them. Another unifying factor in Ukiyo-e is its place as a popular art. Compared to earlier art forms in Japan that were patronized and consumed by small groups of elites, Ukiyo-e’s proclivity for woodblock print made it highly reproducible and accessible to a growing metropolitan population.
Published in 1864, Hiroshige II and Utagawa Kunisada’s (Toyokuni III) joint print album Thirty-six Scenes of the Pride of Edo features a collection of images presenting various specialty products, events, and unique locations in the feudal capital of Edo. The series represents the quintessential Ukiyo-e album, combining two popular subjects through careful composition and sumptuous coloring.[3] The twenty-eighth print in the series “Hiyoshi Sanno Festival” (Figure 2) features a cross-dressed Geisha and a girl. Although this print is not the earliest example of women cross-dressing in Ukiyo-e, it is a critical work that bespeaks a critical watershed in the practice and perception of women’s cross-dressing.[4]
The duo stands outside the Torii gate on the road leading to the titular Hiyoshi shrine. The shrine building can be seen by its roof rising above a grove of trees in the background, and a yellow cloud or mist covers the midground creating a sense of distance between them. They are dressed in brightly colored, multi-pattern costumes consisting of a flashy embroidered juban, or under kimono, and multiple outer kimonos. The flamboyant design of their clothing identifies them as members of the parade that will begin at Hiyoshi Shrine and circle the city for the entire day in honor of the patron gods. These performers are part of the spectacle of the festival. One sleeve of the outer kimono is pulled down to expose the shoulder of the red juban, and they are wearing tattsuke hakama, a style of pants that are tailored tight from the knee down and baggy up top. The child also has a hanagasa, or flower hat, on her back, a common accouterment of the costume.
Along with the hat, the fan in the older woman’s hand with the pink peony motif is also a standard accessory. The peony is a typical auspicious symbol representing wealth and good fortune appropriate for the festival setting. The bright color and size of the flower on the fan would easily catch the crowd’s attention watching the parade. Besides being an eye-catching motif, the peony also often signifies bravery, a trait usually attributed to men in the feudal period. With this symbol, the peculiarities of the women’s presentation begin to unravel.
It should be noted that the tattsuke hakama pants were not considered proper woman’s clothing in the period. Hakama came in and out of fashion for women throughout Japanese history, but by the late Tokugawa, it was generally considered men’s clothing exclusively (Figure 3.) [5] It would only swing back into acceptability in the 1870s under a new policy by the Meiji government.[6] The older woman’s hair is also not considered a woman’s style since it mimics the kind of forward-facing topknots typical for men (Figure 4)[7] The young girl’s hairstyle is more ambiguous: the forelocks around her face were worn by children of all genders but, when combined with the hakama, her gender is less immediately apparent. These implications are not immediately evident upon viewing this image, especially for a modern foreign viewer. At first, it might be difficult to discern that the woman’s clothing is masculine. While it is not a perfect replication of men’s clothing, due to the inclusion of bright colors and floral patterns considered strictly feminine, Japanese viewers in the Tokugawa period (and possibly even contemporary Japanese viewers since the costume is still present in festivals today) would be able to identify this as a form of cross-dressing.
Figure 3. Man wearing tattsuke Hakama & Detail of “Hiyoshi Sanno Festival”
Figure 4. Example of the basic men’s style of the Edo period called Chonmage & Detail of “Hiyoshi Sanno Festival”
Detail of Utagawa Kunisada & Detail of “Hiyoshi Sanno festival”
The construction of the image also highlights the strangeness of their costumes by setting up a juxtaposition with another woman and child seen just beyond the torii gate. The woman in this pairing wears an outfit and hairstyle more typical of her gender. Her presence distinguishes between the print’s main characters in the foreground and “normal” women. Also noteworthy is the composition of the scene. Between the two women, the torii gate creates a boundary that implies the separation of the performers from everyday people and customs. She is not part of the everyday but is confined to her performance.
This cross-dressing costume, called tekomai, is meant to mimic the outfits worn by the men who would lead festival processions. Its inclusion in festivals like Sanno suggests that cross-dressing geisha were commonplace and unproblematic. However, the careful composition of this image reminds the viewer of the geisha’s otherness. For one thing, this print was born out of an era when the headwind of conservatism in politics and morality became ever more robust in the face of the most drastic change to Japanese history and culture. Kunisada and Hiroshige II’s series was created near the end of the Tokugawa period. Only three years following its publication, the Shogunate embroiled itself in a civil war with pro-imperial forces. In 1868, the shogunate lost that war, and the Meiji Restoration began. What was the ghostly shadow that the conservative Shogunate tried to expel?
Detail of Kitagawa Eizan & Detail of “Hiyoshi Sanno Festival”
[1] Andreas Marks, Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers, and Masterworks, 1680-1900., (Tokyo: Tuttle Pub, 2010,) 9.
[2] David Bell, Ukiyo-e Explained, Folkestone, (Kent: Global Oriental, 2004,) 1.
[3] Artistic collaborations like this were common in Ukiyo-e, and in this series, Hiroshige II brings his specialty in Fukei-e, and Kunisada brings the Bijinga. This combination of core Ukiyo-e subjects would become common in nineteenth-century prints. Combinations like this made the print series more appealing to audiences looking for fresh takes on well-worn subjects. It’s also very likely that in this scenario, Kunisada was doing a favor for younger artists in his school by lending his more established reputation to the series.
[4] The very earliest iterations can be found as far back as the seventeenth century, but this capstone does not include that body of material because it of its significant distance in time from the twentieth century examples discussed in the second chapter. This capstone has chosen to limit its scope and prioritize works in the century immediately preceding the twentieth Century examples.
[5] Takeda, Sachiko, “Menswear, Womenswear: Distinctive features of the Japanese Sartorial system.” In Gender and Japanese History, (Osaka: Osaka University Press, 1999,) 204.
[6] Rebecca Copeland. “Fashioning the Feminine: Images of the Modern Girl Student in Meiji Japan.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, no. 30/31 (2006): 15-16.
[7] Suzanne G. O’Brien “Splitting Hairs: History and the Politics of Daily Life in Nineteenth Century Japan.” The Journal of Asian Studies 67, no. 4 (2008): 1318-1319.