Toshusai SHARAKU.Active around 1790-1795Actor Osagawa Tsuneyo II as Ippei's Older Sister Osan.Late nineteenth centuryPolychrome woodcut, 385x257 mm, (oban-tate-e). Print on thick laid paper, signed “Toshusai Sharaku ga”. Under the signature, the censor seal kiwame and the publisher's seal “Tsutaya Jûzaburô”. Small margin partially not colored at the bottom and on the right. Good condition.

The image is from 1794 but this print of ours on original Japanese paper is a 19th century edition. The role played by Tsuneyo has been identified by the scholar Suwa Haruo. In the Yakuwari banzauke (List of theatrical roles) in the Diet Library he found two roles listed for Tsuneyo: one as "Ippei's sister, Osan" in the play Koinyobo, and the other as "Shizuka Gozen" in Yoshitsune senbonzakura. Both plays were performed at the Kawarazaki Theater the fifth month of 1794 (Kansei 6). Not much is known about the woodblock print artist Toshusai Sharaku, who specialized in kabuki portraits. His career spanned only ten months from 1794 to 1795, with around 150 prints known. Unlike his contemporaries, Sharaku did not idealize his subjects, instead creating realistic portrayals that were not always flattering, and his prints were not a popular success at the time. His best works convey a rare perceptivity, with a psychological insight and a deep understanding of the dramatic nature of the roles and the actors he depicted. Sharaku left behind a body of masterworks of ukiyo-e kabuki portraiture that remained unrecognized until a century after his death.