The Floating World
Matsumoto Kōshirō IV as the Fish Seller Gorobei
四代目松本幸四郎の山谷の肴屋五郎兵衛 · Yodaime Matsumoto Kōshirō no Sanya no sakanaya Gorobei
Tōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
What it is
Kōshirō IV as Gorobei, the fishmonger of Sanya — a commoner’s role given a lord’s gravity — from the revenge play Katakiuchi noriaibanashi.
Why it matters
Sharaku drew each actor’s real features and kept them consistent across every sheet — the hooked nose and long jaw here are recognizably Kōshirō’s, individual likeness in a medium built on ideal faces.
What to notice
Compare this face to any Utamaro beauty: one is a type perfected, the other a particular man you would know in the street.
A face you would know in the street — that was the scandal.
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 · 1934.237
- kirazuri
Impression note. As with all of Sharaku’s first-period portraits, the hand-applied dark mica ground is the great variable between sheets; fine impressions pair a deep, even shimmer with unfaded robe tones. 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
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