TOSHUSAI SHARAKU. Ichikawa Ebizo IV as Takemura Sadanojo in the Play Koinyobo Somewake Tazuna

TOSHUSAI SHARAKU (active 1794-95)

Ichikawa Ebizo IV as Takemura Sadanojo in the Play Koinyobo Somewake Tazuna

Ichikawa Ebizo IV as Takemura Sadanojo in the Play Koinyobo Somewake Tazuna. Artist: Toshusai Sharaku (Japanese, active 1794-95). Culture: Japan. Dimensions: 14 7/16 x 9 1/3 in. (36.7 x 23.7 cm). Date: 1794. In this portrait, one of Sharaku's most famous works, Ebizo Is acting the part of a samurai warrior of tremendous integrity at a moment of insufferable moral conflict. Indeed, in the succeeding moment he will commit seppuku, or suicide by disembowelment, to preserve his honor. Ebizo's realization of his inescapable fate is apparent in his hands, which are clenched with enormous tension, while his eyes seem to peer out of a face devastated by the pain of his fatal dilemma. Sharaku has arranged the drapery folds to amplify the anguish expressed by the hands and orchestrate the transition between the two focal points of the composition--the hands and eyes. In the late eighteenth century, this actor was the fourth holder of the name "Ichikawa Danjuro," the most prestigious position in the world of Kabuki. Since he preferred his personal name, "Ebizo" was inscribed by brush on the upper right corner of this portrait, the only such inscription among extant impressions of this print.

Polychrome woodblock print; ink, color, white mica on paper

Edo period (1615-1868)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

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3002 x 4334 px | 37.2 MB

25.4 x 36.7 cm | 10.0 x 14.4 in (300 dpi)