Sharaku

Tōshūsai Sharaku was a Japanese artist who designed ukiyo-e prints, active only from 1794 to 1795. His real name, birth date, and death date are all unknown. His entire career as a woodblock artist lasted just ten months. Though his work was not well received at the time, it is now regarded as some of the finest in the ukiyo-e tradition.

Sharaku specialized in yakusha-e, portraits of kabuki actors. His compositions emphasized dynamic, energetic poses and a degree of realism that was unusual for the period. While contemporaries like Utamaro idealized their subjects, Sharaku did not hesitate to include unflattering details. This approach did not appeal to the public, and his output stopped abruptly in early 1795. Because he showed such mastery without any known apprenticeship, his identity has been the subject of much speculation. Dozens of theories have been proposed, suggesting he might have been an obscure poet, a Noh actor, or even the master artist Hokusai.

Ukiyo-e flourished in Japan during the Edo period, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Its main subjects were courtesans, kabuki actors, and others connected to the “floating world” of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a major part of the genre. Ukiyo-e was aimed at the merchant class, the lowest social rank, especially in the administrative capital of Edo (modern Tokyo). Its audience, themes, aesthetics, and mass production kept it from being considered serious art at the time.

After the mid-18th century, full-color nishiki-e prints became common, using many woodblocks, one for each color. Critics now see the late 18th century as a peak period for quality. Shunshō of the Katsukawa school introduced the ōkubi-e, or “large-headed picture,” in the 1760s. He and other Katsukawa artists popularized ōkubi yakusha-e actor prints and used mica dust on backgrounds to create a glittering effect. Unlike earlier actor prints, which used stereotyped features and poses of anonymous actors, these aimed for recognizable likenesses.

Sharaku’s works appeared in the middle of the Kansei era (1789–1801), a time of economic hardship. The military government responded with reactionary policies like the Kansei Reforms, meant to strengthen the feudal shogunal system. Some of these policies restricted extravagant fashions, and kabuki theatres faced strict controls on their perceived excesses and limits on actors’ incomes. Despite this, late Edo-period art flourished. New works and popular actors appeared rapidly in kabuki, where realistic performances became fashionable. Yakusha-e increasingly emphasized the individuality of actors, and buyers expected pictures with accurate likenesses, rather than the stereotyped images of the past, such as those by the once-dominant Torii school.

In his ten-month career, Sharaku produced 144 known portraits of kabuki actors—an average of one every two days. By comparison, Utamaro, one of the most celebrated ukiyo-e artists of the period, is said to have taken about a decade to produce around 140 works. Explanations for the mysterious brevity of Sharaku’s career often cite a statement by the artist and writer Ōta Nanpo, who said that Sharaku’s excessive realism was considered strange by his contemporaries.

Over 140 prints have been confirmed as Sharaku’s work. Most are portraits of actors or scenes from kabuki theatre; the rest are of sumo wrestlers or warriors. The prints appear in the common sizes aiban, hosoban, and ōban. They are divided into four periods. The prints of the first two periods are signed “Tōshūsai Sharaku”; the latter two are signed only “Sharaku.” Over time, the print sizes became smaller, and the focus shifted from busts to full-length portraits. The depictions also became less expressive and more conventional. Two picture calendars dating as early as 1789 and three decorated fans as late as 1803 have been attributed to Sharaku, but these attributions are not accepted as authentic. Sharaku’s reputation rests mainly on his earlier prints; those from the eleventh month of 1794 onward are considered artistically inferior.

The first period consists of 28 ōban prints from the fifth month of Kansei 6 (1794). They depict actors from kabuki plays at three theatres: the Miyako-za, the Kiri-za, and the Kawarazaki-za. These prints are ōkubi yakusha-e with black mica backgrounds, made with precise, fine lines and simple color schemes. Printing variants of these early prints suggest they went through multiple printings and sold relatively well.

The second period includes 8 ōban and 30 hosoban prints from the seventh and eighth months of Kansei 6 (1794). Sixteen prints come from a play at the Miyako-za in the seventh month; ten from two works at the Kawarazaki-za in the seventh month; eleven from three works at the Kiri-za in the eighth month; and one portrait of the announcer at the Miyako-za. Of the 8 ōban prints, seven are full-length portraits of pairs of actors; the other is of the announcer—the only full-body yakusha-e of its kind.