The Actor Otani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei
Toshusai Sharaku (active 1794 to 1795) · 1794
A kabuki actor lunges towards you against a shimmering dark background, arms thrust out, fingers spread, mouth pulled down into a snarl and eyes crossed in a fierce glare. He plays Edobei, a villainous manservant about to rob someone in a play staged in Edo in the summer of 1794. The print freezes the moment of mie, the dramatic pose that actors hold while the audience shouts their names. Every line of the face is exaggerated, the nose hooked, the eyebrows arched, and yet the man beneath the makeup is unmistakably recognisable.
Sharaku appeared out of nowhere in 1794, produced about one hundred and forty prints in ten months and vanished. His actor portraits were printed by the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo with a background of powdered mica, which catches the light like the dark stage behind a lantern. Look at the economy of colour, a few flat tones of grey, brown and green, and at the way the hands are drawn too small for the body, which makes the gesture feel sudden and tense. The actor's crest is printed on his sleeve, so the audience knew exactly who this was.
The print is part of a series of twenty eight large head portraits of actors in the three Edo theatres, and the museum's set is designated an Important Cultural Property. Prints fade quickly, so the museum shows them in short rotations and this image may be represented by another impression or another Sharaku when you visit. It is the most famous Japanese print after Hokusai's wave, reproduced on everything from stamps to record sleeves, and its glaring face is the closest thing kabuki has to a logo.
Did You Know? Sharaku produced all his known work in about ten months of 1794 and 1795, then disappeared without trace.
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