Kabuki Actor Ōtani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei1794
The actor Ōtani Oniji III glares out as Edobei, a villainous retainer, his hands thrust forward with fingers splayed like claws and his mouth clamped in a grimace, against a glittering mica ground. More about this work
About this work
The actor Ōtani Oniji III glares out as Edobei, a villainous retainer, his hands thrust forward with fingers splayed like claws and his mouth clamped in a grimace, against a glittering mica ground. The print is one of the best known by Tōshūsai Sharaku, a mysterious designer who produced around 140 actor prints in about ten months in 1794–95 and then vanished from the record. His bold, close-up portraits exaggerated actors’ features towards caricature, and their unflattering honesty may help explain why his career was so short.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Colour woodblock print
- In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
Tōshūsai Sharaku
Japanese
Sharaku remains one of the puzzles of Japanese art. Within about ten months in 1794–95 he designed some 140 portraits of kabuki actors for the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, then disappeared from the record. His early bust portraits, set against dark mica grounds, exaggerate features and expressions with startling frankness. His identity is still debated, though many scholars favour a Noh actor named Saitō Jūrōbei.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Ukiyo-e
Japanese woodblock prints of the floating world: actors, courtesans, landscapes and the sea.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- JP2822
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Prints
- Department
- Asian Art
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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