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The Actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Kan Shojo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits

The Actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Kan Shojo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits

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Utagawa Kunisada

This print is from a series occasionally referred to as Famous Actors Past and Present, which was intended to celebrate Kunisada’s illustrious career. The prints were produced with the most expensive materials and intricate printing techniques available. Kunisada depicts Sawamura Sojuro V in the role of Kan Shojo from the climactic scene at Mt. Tenpai in the drama Sugawara’s Secrets of Calligraphy. The elaborate costume and makeup represent a “quick-change” acting technique performed onstage when Kan Shojo transforms into a thunder god. The print uses thicker “presentation paper,” fine carving and multiple shades of black for the hair, embossed textile printing in the white of the robe, and the application of shiny, clear gloss in an intricate pattern on the collar of the blue inner robe.
Artist
Utagawa Kunisada
(Japanese, 1786 - 1864)
Title
The Actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Kan Shojo, from an untitled series of large-head portraits
Date
3/1860
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
13 1/4 x 9 9/16 in. Image
Credit
John H. Van Vleck Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
2006.10
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 156, no. 139

  • Japanese Masterworks: Woodblock Prints from the Chazen Museum of Art Collection: Chazen Museum of Art, 5/6/2016–8/14/2016
  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/2/2009–11/26/2009
  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008

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