About This Print
Titled, Behind the Stage 舞台裏, we're shown stage-hands building a set for an unknown play. This print, dated 1949, was issued as part of the series 戦後風俗 (Sengo fūzoku), translated as "Post-war Life and Customs" and subsequently included in the 1950-1951 five-part portfolio (each portfolio containing five prints,) titled The Face of Tokyo 版画集東京の顔 . Kitaoka used a mica impregnated paper for this 1949 print and the print included in the later portfolio.
Central Gallery label packaged with this print
 4.Behind the Stage from "The Face of Tokyo No. 4" 1951 woodcut on paper, 12.1×15 cm M00107-019 The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo |  Butaiura (Back Stage), 1951 From the series, "Tokyo no Kao" (The Face of Tokyo) artelino Japanese prints website archive |
This collection's print and images of the 1950 dated print appear to be identical and it is possible that a second printing was done by Kitaoka to create the five-part portfolio The Face of Tokyo 東京の顔.
The Portfolio The Face of Tokyo
This beautifully designed and, unfortunately, overlooked series portrays post-war Tokyo in the social-realist style that Kitaoka embraced after the war and later rejected, telling Statler "I rebelled against their [Japan's proletarian artists] subjugation of art to politics..."1Five prints in the series, noted in the below list of titles in the portfolio, were printed in color and the remainder were monochrome prints.
For other prints in the Collection from this series see Around Ochanomizu (Kanda River), Outside Shinjuku Station, the West Exit and Playing Bingo.
Images of the entire series, titles listed below, are in the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and can be viewed at the website of the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art at http://search.artmuseums.go.jp/search_e/sakuhin_list.php?sakka=601
"The Face of Tokyo No.1", 1950
1.The Jimbocho Bookstore District
2.The Kanda River
3.The Unemployment Office in Iidabashi
4.A Night Game of Baceball [sic] (color woodblock)
5.The Nikkatsu Movie Theater in Kanda
"The Face of Tokyo No.2", 1950
1.Playing Bingo
2.Outside Shinjuku Station, the East Exit
3.Shinjuku at Night (color woodblock)
4.Outside Shinjuku Station, the West Exit
5.The Shinjuku Imperial Garden
"The Face of Tokyo No.3", 1950
1.Sukiyabashi Bridge
2.Ginza in Christmas Season
3.Hibiya Park (color woodblock)
4.Strip Show at the Nichigeki Theater
5.Under the Railroad Overpass at Yurakucho
The Face of Tokyo No.4" , 1951
1.City at Rest
2.Ginza at New Year
3.Ginza on a Rainy Day (color woodblock)
4.Behind the Stage
5.Back Street of Ginza at New Year
"The Face of Tokyo No.5" , 1951
1.Inside Ueno Station
2.Step Leading to Ueno Park
3.Shinobazu Pond (color woodblock)
4.The Ameyoko District
5.Ueno Zoo
1 Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn, Oliver Statler, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1956, p.153.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #642 |
| Title | Behind the Stage 舞台裏 |
| Series | originally issued as part of the series Post-war life & customs (戦後風俗 Sengo fuuzoku) and in 1951 as part of the portfolio The Face of Tokyo (No. 4) 東京の顔 |
| Artist | Kitaoka Fumio (1918-2007) |
| Signature | pencil signed by artist "F. Kitaoka" in English below the image and printed "F.K." lower right corner of image. |
| Seal | unsealed |
| Publication Date | 1949 |
| Edition | unnumbered |
| Publisher | self-published |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent- print was professionally conserved to remove overall toning, mat line and foxing primarily visible in margins |
| Genre | sosaku hanga (creative print) |
| Miscellaneous | mica impregnated paper |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 7 1/2 x 8 7/8 in. (19.1 x 22.5 cm) |
| H x W Image | 4 7/8 x 5 3/4 in. (12.4 x 14.6 cm) |
| Collections This Print | The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo M00107-019 |
| Reference Literature |
last revision:
2/5/2019
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