Toshusai Sharaku (18th Century) Japanese, Woodblock Print. Kanji upper right. Depicts actor Matsumoto Yonesaburo as Shosho of Kewaizaka. 

Overall: 21 1/4 X 16 in. 

Sight: 14 X 9 1/2 in. 

#3886 . 

Tōshūsai Sharaku was a prolific Japanese ukiyo-e print designer, known for his numerous portraits of kabuki actors. Neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known. His active career as a woodblock artist spanned just ten months between 1794 and 1795, as his immense body of work met with instant disapproval when it was released and his output came to an end as suddenly and mysteriously as it had begun. Since then his work has come to be considered some of the greatest and most important in the ukiyo-e genre. Sharaku made mostly yakusha-e portraits of kabuki actors, and his compositions emphasize poses with dynamism and energy, displaying a level of realism unusual for prints of the time. Contemporaries such as Utamaro represented their subjects with an idealized beauty, while Sharaku did not shy away from showing unflattering details. This was not to the tastes of the public at the time, and his mastery of the medium with no apparent apprenticeship has drawn much speculation, as researchers have long tried to discover his true identity amongst dozens of proposals: an obscure poet, a Noh actor, or even the ukiyo-e master Hokusai under a pseudonym. After the mid 18th Century full color nishiki-e prints became common, printed with a large number of woodblocks, one for each color, and Shunshō of the Katsukawa school introduced the ōkubi-e "large-headed picture" in the 1760s that Sharaku later perfected. Shunshō and other members of the Katsukawa school popularized ōkubi yakusha-e actor prints and the dusting of mica in the backgrounds to produce a luxurious glittering effect. In contrast to earlier actor prints, which used stereotyped features and poses of anonymous actors, these ōkubi yakusha-e aimed for recognizable likenesses. Tōshūsai[a] Sharaku's works appeared in the middle of the Kansei era (1789-1801), when the nation faced hard economic times that the military government responded to with reactionary policies such as the Kansei Reforms intended to strengthen the feudalistic shogun system. Some of the policies restricted extravagant fashions, and Kabuki theatres faced strict control over their perceived excesses and limits on actors' incomes. Late Edo-period art nevertheless flourished with the merchant class, and new works and popular actors continued to rapidly appear in kabuki theatre, where realistic performances became in vogue. Yakusha-e came to favor a greater emphasis on the individuality of the actors rather than stereotyped images of the past or simple adherence to general character traits, and buyers came to expect pictures with the actors' likenesses. Over 140 prints have been established as the work of Sharaku, mainly actors or scenes from kabuki theatre, with the rest being sumo wrestlers or warriors. The prints appeared in the common print sizes aiban, hosoban, and ōban, and are divided into four periods, with the first two signed "Tōshūsai Sharaku" the latter two only "Sharaku." The print sizes became progressively smaller and the focus shifted from busts to full-length portraits, and the depictions also became less expressive and more conventional, likely in response to audience tastes and outcry. While most ukiyo-e artists gained apprenticeship experience and connections by working for an artistic school, such as the Torii or Utagawa school, Sharaku did not, and this likely also contributed to his failure to find a sufficient audience. Just over 600 surviving copies of Sharaku's prints are known, with only about 100 of them remaining in Japan after they became extremely popular with European collectors. His piece "Arashi Ryūzō I as Ishibe Kinkichi" sold for €389,000 at Piasa in Paris in 2009, setting a record auction price for a Sharaku print.