Mourir en scène: Les portraits nècrologiques d'acteurs de kabuki au milieu du xix^e siècle

Ordinary "shini-e" (literally: "images of death") designates a group of prints edited to commemorate the passing of famous kabuki theatre actors. The golden age of this type of print can be placed in the middle of the 19lh century, when a generation of talented and very popular actors left this world one after the other. These shini-e can be considered a last homage to the deceased actors, and at the same time, they are very good indicators of their popularity if we consider the number and variety of prints. Generally, the images depict the actors in the hereafter, sometimes with a touch of humour when Buddhist classical images of the afterlife are diverted in a parody. This paper gives a presentation and analysis of some shini-e issued during that period (middle of the 19lh century), following the route of the deceased from the moment he passes away (where the continuity between this world and the beyond is emphasised), to his arrival at the crossroads of the Six Paths of Rebirth, or his debut on the new stage in the other world. The speciality of the shini-e is their ability to incorporate the personality and the unique circumstances of the actor's death in the picture, while embodying all the feelings of the spectators left behind to whom those prints appear to be a last message from beyond the grave, where the actor seems to tell us that his death is, after all, nothing but a stage effect of his last play for posterity.