The Actor Ichikawa Ebizo as Takemura Sadanoshin 市川鰕蔵の竹村定之進

This print depicts Ichikawa Ebizo (Ichikawa Danjuro V), a driving force in Edo Kabuki, playing the role of Takemura Sadanoshin in the play Koi Nyobo Somewake Tazuna. It was presented at the Kawarasakiza in the fifth month of 1794. Takemura Sadanoshin is a Yurugi clan Noh master who performs ritual suicide to save the life of his daughter, Shigenoi, who has committed adultery. In this portrayal of Ebizo in that role, the wide-open eyes and clenched teeth give us the sense of his having committed himself to dying, while his twisted hands suggest his being obsequious to power. These expressions and gestures all communicate what a great actor Ebizo was. Toshusai Sharaku was the dominant artist in the actor print genre in his brief day. He is famous for producing, all at once, a set of twenty-eight oban (about 25 by 38 cm) polychrome prints of actors at the three Kabuki theaters in Edo and then disappearing from the world of ukiyo-e a mere ten months later. All twenty-eight prints are okubi-e, half-length portraits, printed using the kirazuri technique: applying shiny ground mica, kira, here atop a black background. This print is regarded as a masterpiece among that stunning series and is one of the most highly regarded of his entire oeuvre. We know from the collector’s seal on this print that it owned by Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), a Meiji-period art dealer, and then by Henri Vever (1854-1942), a Parisian jeweler and famous collector of ukiyo-e. The design of the Edo-Tokyo Museum’s symbol, by the way, was based on the actor’s right eye as depicted in this print.