Paul Binnie (artist 1967 –)
Bandō Tamasaburō V performing the Backbend (Ebizori - えび反) from the series Large-head portraits of Kabuki (Kabuki okubi-e 歌舞伎大首絵)
1997 – 1998
18.75 in x 26.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signature in kanji in the lower lef Bin-ni
Artist's circular seal
Title: ebizori (えび反)
Date: 1997 (Heisei kyu nen)
Numbered 44/50
Titled and signed in penciled
With gold mica ground and karazuri (blind-printing) on the white collar.
Double-oban tate-e
Edition of 50. The artist is both the carver and the printer. Binnie wrote: "Here is one of the woodblock prints, to my knowledge the only upside-down portrait of a Kabuki actor in history. The great actor Bandō Tamasaburo [sic] was one of the most beautiful and accomplished female-rôle actors in the 1990s, and I made several prints and paintings of him in the nearly six years I lived in Tokyo. This moment is a very famous pose when the actor does a ‘prawn bend’ (ebi zori) curling backwards like a cooked prawn, and Tamasaburo was young and supple enough that the hair of his wig lay upon the stage!" This comment was made on June 10, 2022.
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Ebizori (えび反) is defined as "holding out one or both hands and arching one's body backward like a shrimp (in kabuki, represents being overwhelmed by someone's power)."
An ebi (海老) is a shrimp, lobster or crayfish.
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Illustrated in Paul Binnie: A Dialogue with the Past: the First 100 Japanese Prints, edited by E. Van den Ing, 2007, Art Media Resources, Chicago, page 52.
self-printed (sōsaku hanga - 創作版画) (genre)
Bandō Tamasaburō V (五代目坂東玉三郎: since June 1964) (actor)