粂八は女団洲の異名をとった芸達者で、三崎座に女芝居の一座を率いていました。清方は、藍地に白く蝙蝠（こうもり）が抜いてある浴衣に羽二重をかけた楽屋姿の粂八を描きました。額や目元は、芸の苦労や辛い浮世に寄る年波を刻み、白く透き通る手肌に静脈が浮き出ています。傍に秋海棠(しゅうかいどう)が咲き誇り、白緑の影が人物を纏っています。「出雲の阿国の後唯一人といわれた女役者の絵姿を彩るものは、朱（あけ）むらさきのはなやかさではなくて、褪めた江戸絵のうつろひゆくさびしさであつた」（「素材素描」『鏑木淸方文集 一 制作余談』）と清方は述べています。清方が誰かを描くということは、その人を彼がよく理解していたという証でもあります。この年の11月、清方は文化勲章を受章しました。
Portrait of the Kabuki Actress Kumehachi (1954)
color on silk; framed
96.4 x 57.0 cm
Kumehachi is the professional name of the Kabuki actress who led the all-female troupe at the Misakiza theater. Kiyokata has depicted Kumehachi as she might have looked backstage dressed in a habutae silk kimono draped over a yukata with white bats on an indigo ground. The sadness of life and the hardships associated with a life spent in the theater are etched into her face and the area around her eyes. We can even see the veins through the white transparent skin on her hands. The hardy begonia by her side is in full bloom, and pale green shadows tinged with white surround her. Kiyokata says that the color scheme for his portrait of the most noted female actress since Izumo no Okuni (founder of Kabuki) are not the brilliant hues of vermilion and purple, but the waning loneliness of a faded Edo painting. This is evidence that when Kiyokata painted someone’s portrait, he understood them very well. Kiyokata was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in November the same year.
