The Floating World
Ōtani Oniji III as the Yakko Edobei
三代目大谷鬼次の奴江戸兵衛 · Sandaime Ōtani Oniji no yakko Edobei
Tōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
What it is
The manservant Edobei at the instant before violence — shoulders hunched, fingers splayed, mouth pulled down — from the play The Colored Reins of a Loving Wife (Koi nyōbō somewake tazuna).
Why it matters
In the fifth month of 1794 the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō released twenty-eight portraits like this by an artist no one had heard of; ten months and some 140 designs later Sharaku stopped, and no one has ever established who he was.
What to notice
The hands are too small and the grimace too honest — Sharaku printed what actors actually looked like mid-role, not the flattery they paid for, against a black mica ground that still reads as stage darkness.
Caught one breath before the crime.
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 · 1934.207
- kirazuri
Impression note. The dark mica ground is hand-applied and differs sheet to sheet in depth and sheen; fine impressions hold a dense, near-black shimmer behind the figure and keep the fugitive tones of the robe. 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 SharakuIchikawa Ebizō as Takemura SadanoshinTōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
Tōshūsai SharakuSegawa Tomisaburō II as YadorigiTōshūsai Sharaku · 1794 (Kansei 6, 5th month)
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.