Segawa Tomisaburō II as Yadorigi in the Play "Hana Ayame Bunroku Soga"1794
Segawa Tomisaburō II, an onnagata, or male specialist in female roles, plays Yadorigi in the play Hana Ayame Bunroku Soga, staged in Edo in 1794. More about this work
About this work
Segawa Tomisaburō II, an onnagata, or male specialist in female roles, plays Yadorigi in the play Hana Ayame Bunroku Soga, staged in Edo in 1794. Tōshūsai Sharaku refused to idealise: beneath the elaborate hairstyle and delicate pose, the actor’s long face, sharp nose and thin lips are unmistakably a man’s, a frankness that may have delighted some theatregoers and offended others. The mica ground, made with powdered mineral, gives the print a luxurious sheen.
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
- JP3112
- 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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