The actor Ichikawa Omezo as the manservant Ippei1794
Ichikawa Omezō plays the manservant Ippei in one of the large-head portraits Tōshūsai Sharaku designed in 1794 for fans of the Edo theatre. More about this work
About this work
Ichikawa Omezō plays the manservant Ippei in one of the large-head portraits Tōshūsai Sharaku designed in 1794 for fans of the Edo theatre. Ippei and his elder sister Osan, played by Osagawa Tsuneyo II in a companion print, appeared together in the same production, and Sharaku’s images served as souvenirs and advertisements for the performance. In about ten months Sharaku produced some 140 prints and then disappeared; his identity is still debated, though many scholars believe he was a Noh actor in the service of a provincial lord.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of color woodblock print; oban.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
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.
- Ōban
- The standard large Japanese print size, about 38 × 25 cm.
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 Art Institute of Chicago 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
- 1934.201
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Department
- Arts of Asia
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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More by Tōshūsai Sharaku
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