Tôshûsai Sharaku (active 1794-95)
There are also 18 known drawings by Sharaku: 10 double portraits of sumo wrestlers (9 lost in the 1923 Kantô earthquake, 1 surviving in the former Henri Vever collection), and 8 drawings of actors in the 8th month, 1794 (these were mitate of unstaged performances).
Indeed, a Nô actor named Saitô Jûrôbei is named in a later Nô program of 1816, so we know that such an actor existed. Also, the Lord of Awa arrived in Edo on 4/6/1793, then was absent from 4/21/1794 through 4/2/1796, possibly indicating that if Sharaku (i.e., the Nô actor Jûrôbei) was not obliged to accompany his lord, he would have been free to explore his printmaking during the very period when Sharaku's prints appeared. In addition, Sharaku might have been trained in Osaka, as his style of drawing was closer to the Osaka master Ryûkôsai than to any Edo artist of the period, and Ryûkôsai's actor portraits in hosoban format preceded Sharaku's working period by about 3 years. Also, some of his portraits were of Osaka actors performing in Edo, perhaps an indication of his special interest in these particular entertainers. Overall, the evidence for an Osaka connection is only circumstantial, but it is nevertheless consistent chronologically and plausible aesthetically. All the other theories lack convincing corroborating evidence (these include claims that Sharaku was, among others, the artist Hokusai, Toyokuni, Kiyomasa, or Utamaro; the publisher Tsutaya Jûzaburô; the haiku poet Sharaku residing in Nara and appearing in manuscripts from 1776 and 1794; and a certain Katayama Sharaku, the husband of a disciple named Nami at the Shintô headquarters at the Konkô-kyô, who was said to have resided at Tenma Itabashi-chô, Osaka). Sharaku's Disappearance If Sharaku did not quit printmaking simply because his prints failed to sell, perhaps there other contributing circumstances that forced him to abandon print design. If Sharaku was indeed Saitô Jûrôbei, did he have commitments to his Nô troupe or to his lord that forced an abrupt end to his printmaking career? What effect, if any, did patronage have on Sharaku's disappearance? If he had private means or sponsorship, what role did it play in his choice of style, plays, and actors, or did the initial support for Sharaku's unconventional portraiture run its course rather quickly? Could disappointing print sales have led his publisher, Tsutaya Jûzaburô, to withdraw the encouragement or cooperation Sharaku needed to continue? It is interesting to note that Sharaku's later designs relied more and more on compositions not directly related to actual stage performances (a genre called 'mitate'), with actors in roles they did not perform for the given plays. One theory suggests that this trend indicates Sharaku faced increasingly limited access to the theater and its actors. Consequently, by producing too many portraits that did not match what theater fans had just witnessed on stage, his prints failed to sell. Sharaku's Artistic Style If we examine the illustration above, we see the actor Arashi Ryûzô as Ishibe Kinkichi from the play Hana-ayame Bunroku Soga ("Blooming Iris, Soga of the Bunroku Era") performed at the Miyako Theater, 5/1794. This was a popular vendetta play in which the Soga brothers attempted to avenge their father's murder of 20 years earlier. Kinkichi was a mean-spirited money lender (in one scene he kicks and beats up a character named Bunzô — see below), and his crude demeanor and grimacing mouth seem to suggest something of his venal character. Sharaku's artistic style was one in which truthfulness was manifested by simultaneous portrayals of both the stage persona and the actor himself. We can also observe Sharaku's use of bold, thick lines for the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth, in contrast to the thin, delicate lines of the remainder of the face. Perhaps Sharaku intended to concentrate on or even exaggerate the expressive possibilities of the eyes and mouth, key aspects of physiognomy used to great effect by kabuki actors in their mie ("displays" or static poses at climactic moments in the plays). Sharaku's use of mica backgrounds, although not original to him, might also have served as devices meant to mimic reflected visages in mirrors and thus suggest a level of realism important to his artistic vision. His mica-ground portraits served as reflections of a confluent physical and emotional reality to far greater degree than did the actor portraits of earlier ukiyo-e artists. The illustration on the immediate right is a portrait of the supreme onnagata Segawa Kikunojô III (1751-1810) as Oshizu, the wife of a minor character named Tanabe Bunzô in the same play discussed above. Oshizu's husband was a stalwart supporter of the Soga brothers vendetta. Sharaku designed eleven prints for this performance, and the portrait of Oshizu is one of the best. It is extraordinary that a somewhat overweight man getting on in years could bring such female characters to life in an utterly convincing manner. Yet Kikunojô did indeed do this, specializing, amazingly, in ingenues and courtesans. He was ranked the best actor in female roles in Edo in 1782, and by 1790 he commanded the huge annual salary of 1,850 ryô. Kikunojô's nickname included the title of a Shintô deity (Daimyôjin), and there was even a makeup named after him. He was still at the height of his fame when depicted in Sharaku's print. Afterwards, in 1808, he was made zagashira ("troupe head"), the highest ranking position in a theater company and very rare for an 'onnagata' to achieve. In Sharaku's portrait we do not, however, see an idealization of the actor's physicality, either to conform to the 43-year old Kikunojô's exalted status or to the young female theatrical character he is playing. There is certainly an expression of femininity and poise in this depiction, but the man beneath the robes is also present, his full face and prominent nose clearly meant to capture his true likeness (nigao). Perhaps if Sharaku's portraits were indeed too truthful for his contemporaries, it might have been his onnagata ôkubi-e that tipped the balance against his being widely popular. Today, however, these designs are the most sought after and widely admired among the masterpieces of ukiyo-e printmaking. © 2001-2002 by John Fiorillo BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Tôshûsai Sharaku was one of art history’s most fascinating figures. He produced an astonishing body of work despite
a very brief working period, which lasted from the fifth month of 1794 to the first month of 1795 (totaling 10 months due to an intercalary
month). The number of works was also small, although the reported count varies depending on whether one considers polyptychs as single
compositions or as separate sheets and, indeed, which sheets belong together as one design. If we simplify and count each sheet separately,
the total would be 145 known individual sheets. The following table presents Sharaku's prints in chronologically arranged groups.
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