Toshusai Sharaku
A mysterious ukiyo-e artist who drew unique pictures of actors in the late Edo period
Sharaku is one of the best-known ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period (1603-1867). The years of his birth and death are unknown. There is also a lack of solid material about his career. According to the theory advanced by Saito Gesshin, an Edo-period scholar working in the tradition of evidential scholarship, he was "a Noh actor in the employ of the Awa domain who lived in Hatchobori, Edo, and his name is Saito Jurobei." (The Awa domain was located in present-day Tokushima Prefecture.)
In the Fifth Month of 1794, he published a gorgeous large-head portrait of an actor that attracted a lot of attention. His publisher, Tsutaya Juzaburo, printed this portrait in color with mica powder. Over the next ten months, he published 142 portraits of actors (some say 143 to 145) and a few pictures of sumo wrestlers. He then broke off his relationship with the ukiyo-e world, and his subsequent activities as a painter cannot be determined at all.
His ukiyo-e career is divided into four periods:
First period, Fifth Month of 1794, 28 paintings. All these works are large-head portraits of actors, printed using black mica. Signatures read, "Painting by Toshusai Sharaku."
Second period, Seventh Month to Eighth Month of 1794, 38 paintings. Except for 1 large-format black-mica print and 7 large-format white-mica prints, the remaining 30 prints all have a tall, narrow format with full-body images of actors. Signatures read "Painting by Toshusai Sharaku."
Third period, Eleventh Month to Intercalary Eleventh Month of 1794, 64 paintings. There are 47 prints with a tall, narrow format and full-body images of actors, 11 medium-sized prints with large-head portraits of actors, 2 medium-sized memorial pictures of dead actors, 1 medium-sized picture of a sumo wrestler, and 3 large-format pictures of sumo wrestlers. In general, signatures read, "Painting by Sharaku."
Fourth period, First Month of 1795, 12 paintings. There are 10 prints with a tall, narrow format and full-body images of actors, and 2 medium-sized pictures of sumo wrestlers. Signatures read, "Painting by Sharaku."
The gorgeous actor paintings of Sharaku's first period are outstanding representations of his work. Included in this period are such works as Ichikawa Komazo no Shiga Daishichi (Ichikawa Komazo in the Role of Shiga Daishichi) and Osagawa Tsuneyo no Sakuragi (Osagawa Tsuneyo in the Role of Sakuragi). In these paintings, one can see the vivid facial expression of the role being enacted and the real face of the actor boldly deformed. Such vividness and boldness did much to raise the status of large-head prints.
In the second period, the exaggerated facial expressions are suppressed, and pictures show the full scene and a full-body image. Because this new style was not favorably received, the quality of his work declined. The 12 works published in the lunar First Month of 1795 were the last works he made public.
Regarding Sharaku's exit from the world of painting, Ota Nanpo in Ukiyo-e kosho (Evidence on Floating World Pictures) wrote, "In drawing portraits of kabuki actors, he tried too much to draw the truth. And because the style of his drawings was unusual and even weird, its popularity did not last long and ended in a year or two."
Others after Nanpo also added notes about Sharaku in Ukiyo-e kosho, men such as Santo Kyoden, Shikitei Sanba, and Keisai Eisen. Shikitei Sanba wrote, "He lives in Hatchobori." From Zoho ukiyo-e ruiko (Various Thoughts on Prints of the Floating World, revised and enlarged), compiled by Saito Gesshin in 1844, we learn that "he lived during the Tenmei [1781-1789] and Kansei [1789-1801] eras," that "he was commonly called Saito Jurobei," and that "he was a Noh actor in the employ of the lord of Awa." Moreover, in the name directory Shoka jinmei, Edo hogaku wake (Literary Men, Edo Classified by Area), compiled by the kabuki actor Segawa Tomisaburo III, under the entry for Hatchobori we find listed the deceased painter "Sharaku-sai, Jizobashi" ("sai" indicates a studio name). This entry has sparked interest for its connection with the information given above. Since Sharaku appeared out of nowhere, there is speculation that some famous individual such as Katsushika Hokusai borrowed the name of an unknown individual, but this is nothing more than speculation.
After the above, Sharaku was almost entirely forgotten, but in 1910 Julius Kurt of Germany published Sharaku. This and other efforts led to a better appreciation of Sharaku in Europe and the United States, which led Japanese to reevaluate Sharaku and give him his current high appraisal.
Related People, Things and Events
Books
Collection of paintings and essays
Related Works
Ookubi-e (large-scale close-up portraits): First Period of Creation
Full-length portraits of actors: Second Period of Creation
Third Period (hosoban (narrow format), aiban (intermediate format), ooban (large format) ukiyo-e paintings)
Fourth Period (hosoban, aiban)
Search for National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties
Past Exhibitions
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Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.
大阪市中央区の心斎橋筋商店街に2019年7月に開館。北斎・広重・歌麿・写楽をはじめ浮世絵版画を多数展示する。
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「三代目瀬川菊之丞の田辺文蔵妻おしづ」など写楽の作品を多数収蔵。収蔵作品検索システムの絵師一覧から作者を選んで検索できる。
「二世瀬川富三郎の大岸蔵人妻やどり木と中村万世の腰元若草」「二世市川門之助の伊達の与作」がデジタル化されている。
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References
- 「東洲斎写楽」の項
- 「東洲斎写楽」の項
- 「東洲斎写楽」の項
- 「写楽」の項
- 内田千鶴子 著,三一書房
- 中野三敏 著,弓立社