The Floating World
Ichikawa Ebizō as Takemura Sadanoshin
市川鰕蔵の竹村定之進 · Ichikawa Ebizō no Takemura Sadanoshin
Tōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
What it is
Ichikawa Ebizō — the great Danjūrō V, playing under a new name — as Sadanoshin, a performer whose daughter’s disgrace will drive him to take his own life: heavy brows, set mouth, a man who has already decided.
Why it matters
From the same twenty-eight-sheet debut as the Edobei, and often called the finest actor portrait ever printed — tragedy carried entirely by a face against darkness.
What to notice
Where the Edobei grimaces, this face holds still: the carver spends everything on the brows and the corners of the mouth, and the mica dark does the work of a stage.
A man who has already decided, holding still.
The record
- Artist
- Tōshūsai Sharaku 東洲斎写楽 (active 1794–1795)
- Date
- 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
- Publisher
- Tsutaya Jūzaburō
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Art Institute of Chicago · 1925.2733
- kirazuri
Impression note. Impressions vary chiefly in the dark mica ground — its density and silvery grain differ with each printer’s hand — and in the fugitive robe colors, which fine sheets keep deep and unfaded. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
More Tōshūsai Sharaku
Tōshūsai SharakuŌtani Oniji III as the Yakko EdobeiTōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
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Tōshūsai SharakuMatsumoto Kōshirō IV as the Fish Seller GorobeiTōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
Tōshūsai SharakuSakata Hangorō III as Fujikawa MizuemonTōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.