The actor Osagawa Tsuneyo II as Osan, Ippei’s elder sister1794
Osagawa Tsuneyo II, a male actor of female roles, appears as Osan, elder sister of the manservant Ippei, in a print Tōshūsai Sharaku designed in 1794 as a companion to his portrait of Ichikawa Omezō in the role of Ippei. More about this work
About this work
Osagawa Tsuneyo II, a male actor of female roles, appears as Osan, elder sister of the manservant Ippei, in a print Tōshūsai Sharaku designed in 1794 as a companion to his portrait of Ichikawa Omezō in the role of Ippei. Sharaku’s close-up portraits captured each actor’s individual features with a frankness unusual in Japanese prints, even in roles that called for feminine grace. His entire output appeared within about ten months, after which he vanished from the historical record.
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
- 1934.199
- 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
Report this work
More by Tōshūsai Sharaku
All their works
Close in colour
