Tōshūsai Sharaku, The
Actors Nakamura Wadaemon and Nakamura Konozō,
a woodblock print
Japan
Edo period, 5th
month, AD 1794
The artist Tōshūsai Sharaku worked for a only a
brief period, for ten months between 1794 and 1795. Very little is
known of him before or after this period and his identity is the
object of much conjecture among historians of Japanese art. The
most likely theory is that he was one Saitō Jūrobei originally a
nō actor in the service
of the Lord of Awa.
Sharaku
had a special talent for characterizing his subjects by
differentiating their facial features. Furthermore, the development
of the okubi-e (‘large
head' portraits) in the mid-1790s encouraged a more
penetrating analysis of character. This print shows a scene from
the play 'A Medley of Tales of Revenge'
(Katakiuchi
noriai-banashi) performed at the Kiri Theatre
in the fifth month of 1794. The two subjects are strongly
contrasted. On the right, Wadaemon in the role of Bodara no
Chōzaemon, a customer visiting a house of pleasure, with his sharp,
angular features, pleads with Kanagawaya Gon, the chubby boatman,
played by Konozō. The boatman's narrowed eyes and snub nose
suggest that he is bent on striking a hard
bargain.
L. Smith, V. Harris and T. Clark, Japanese art: masterpieces in (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)
Narazaki Muneshige, and Yamaguchi Keisaburo (eds.), Ukiyo-e shūka, vol. 2 (Tokyo, shu eisha, 1979)
L. Smith (ed.), Ukiyo-e images of unknown Japa (London, The British Museum Press, 1988/89)