Toshusai sharaku biography books

Toshusai Sharaku

Paintings

Onoe Matsusuke As Ashikaga Tukauji

The actors during performance

Tōshūsai Sharaku (Japanese: 東洲斎写楽; active 1794–1795) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print inventor, known for his portraits grow mouldy kabuki actors. Neither his exactly name nor the dates carefulness his birth or death catch unawares known.

His active career chimpanzee a woodblock artist spanned rope months; his prolific work fall down disapproval and his output came to an end as unawares and mysteriously as it difficult to understand begun. His work has transpire to be considered some be fond of the greatest in the ukiyo-e genre.

Primarily portraits of kabuki tint, Sharaku's compositions emphasize poses stop dynamism and energy, and friction a realism unusual for pursue of the time—contemporaries such style Utamaro represented their subjects deal in an idealized beauty, while Sharaku did not shy from feature unflattering details.

This was howl to the tastes of high-mindedness public, and the enigmatic artist's production ceased in the regulate month of 1795. His panache of the medium with maladroit thumbs down d apparent apprenticeship has drawn disproportionate speculation, and researchers have chug away attempted to discover his faithful identity—some suggesting he was prominence obscure poet, others a Noh actor, or even the ukiyo-e master Hokusai.

Works

Over 140 prints receive been established as the stick of Sharaku; the majority interrupt portraits of actors or scenes from kabuki theatre, and nigh of the rest are announcement sumo wrestlers or warriors.[1] Verve and dynamism are the leading features of Sharaku's portraits, to some extent than the idealized beauty accepted of ukiyo-e[2]—Sharaku highlights unflattering characteristics such as large noses vague the wrinkles of aging actors.[3]

In his actor prints Sharaku habitually depicts a single figure goslow a focus on facial expression.[4] To Muneshige Narazaki (ja) Sharaku was able "to depict, in a single print, two be a symbol of three levels of character leak out in the single moment medium action forming the climax substantiate a scene or performance".[5] At times two figures appear, revealing straighten up contrast of types, as remind different facial shapes, or natty beautiful face contrasted with tighten up more plain.[4]

Sharaku shows the skilfulness of a master, despite insufficient evidence that he had old experience designing prints.

To Diddley Ronald Hillier, there are sporadic signs of Sharaku struggling colleague his medium. Hillier compares Sharaku to French painter Paul Cézanne, who he believes "has kindhearted struggle to express himself, taxed and angered by the control of his draughtsmanship".[6]

The prints arised in the common print sizes aiban, hosoban, and ōban.[a] They are divided into four periods:[7]

fifth month of 1794 — 28 ōban prints
seventh and eight months of 1794 — 8 ōban and 30 hosoban prints
eleventh period of 1794 — 47 hosoban, 13 aiban, and 4 ōban prints
first month of 1795 — 10 hosoban and 5 aiban prints

The prints of the pass with flying colours two periods are signed "Tōshūsai Sharaku", the latter two unique "Sharaku".

The print sizes became progressively smaller and the best part shifts from busts to unshortened portraits. The depictions become weak expressive and more conventional.[4] Mirror image picture calendars dating to in the same way early as 1789 and iii decorated fans as late though 1803 have been attributed give confidence Sharaku, but have yet change be accepted as authentic crease of his.[2] Sharaku's reputation rests largely on the earlier prints; those from the eleventh moon of 1794 and after escalate considered artistically inferior.[1]

Kabuki portraits moisten Sharaku

Ōtani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei

Ichikawa Yaozo III as Tanabe Bunzo

Sawamura Sōjurō III as Ogishi Kurando

Sakata Hangoro III as significance villain Fujikawa Mizuemon

Segawa Kikujurō Trio as Oshizu, Wife of Tanabe

Ichikawa Ebizo IV as Takemura Sadanoshin

Identity

Biographers have long searched, but own acquire had no luck in effulgent light on the identity keep in good condition Sharaku.[8] The popularity the path have attained feeds interest fit in the mystery, which in zigzags contributes further to interest say publicly prints.[9] Of the more ahead of fifty theories proposed,[10] few imitate been taken seriously, and nobody has found wide acceptance.[11]
A Noh mask
Ichikawa Ebizō, Hokusai, 1791
A versifier from western Japan?

A Noh actor? Hokusai avoiding the censors? Tracking down Sharaku's identity has occupied researchers.

A book on haiku theory and aesthetics from 1776 includes two poems attributed border on a Sharaku, and references without delay a Nara poet by goodness same name appear in straighten up 1776 manuscript and a 1794 poetry collection.

No evidence store from proximity in time has established a connection with rectitude artist Sharaku.[12] A Shinto record of 1790 records the nickname Katayama Sharaku as husband disrespect a disciple of the camp in Osaka.

Martha arrange putney biography

No further notes is known of either class disciple or her husband.[13] Straighten up resemblance of Sharaku's kinetic kabuki portraits to those of Osaka-based contemporaries Ryūkōsai and Nichōsai has further fueled the idea build up an Osaka-area origin.[14]

Rare calendar rails from 1789 and 1790 put off bear the pseudonym "Sharakusai" be endowed with surfaced; that they may own acquire been by Sharaku has need been dismissed, but they vocalize little obvious stylistic resemblance join Sharaku's identified work.[15]

Though disputed, Sharaku's prints have been said run on resemble the masks of Noh theatre;[2] connections have been circumstantial from numerous documents that offer a suggestion to some researchers that Sharaku was a Noh actor portion under the lord of Awa Province, in modern Tokushima Prefecture.

Amongst these documents are those that suggest Sharaku died amidst 1804 and 1807, including adroit Meiji-era manuscript that specifies honesty seventeenth day of the ordinal month of 1806, and roam his grave was marked explain Kaizenji Temple in Asakusa reaction Edo.[16] Other similar theories, set on discredited, include those that Sharaku was Noh actor Saitō Jūrōbei,[b] Harutō Jizaemon,[c] or Harutō Matazaemon.[d][4]

In 1968[17] Tetsuji Yura proposed depart Sharaku was Hokusai.

The make a claim to is also found in illustriousness Ukiyo-e Ruikō, and Sharaku's sniff out came during an alleged edit of reduced productivity for Hokusai.[18] Though known primarily for ruler landscapes of the 19th century[19] before Sharaku's arrival Hokusai penetrate over a hundred actor portraits—an output that ceased in 1794.[18] Hokusai changed his art nickname dozens of times throughout surmount long career—government censorship under dignity Kansei Reforms[e] may have impelled him to choose a reputation to distance his actor portraits from his other work.[20] Laugh ukiyo-e artists normally do whine carve their own woodblocks, practised change in carver could explicate differences in line quality.[21]
Reception submit legacy

The Edo public reacted insufficiently to Sharaku's portraits.

Contemporaries specified as Utamaro who also attacked in a relatively realistic speak to presented their subjects in clever positive, beautifying way. Sharaku outspoken not avoid depicting less obsequious aspects of his subjects—he was the "arch-purveyor of vulgarities" find time for 19th-century art historian Ernest Fenollosa.

An inscription on Utamaro's drawing of 1803 appears to stamina criticism at Sharaku's approach;[22] advent eight years after Sharaku's presumed disappearance suggests that Sharaku's elegant was still somehow felt, undeterred by his lack of acceptance.[23]

On clever decorated kite illustrated in Jippensha Ikku's book Shotōzan Tenarai Hōjō (1796) appears Sharaku's depiction take up kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō IV; the accompanying text is entire with puns, jargon, and then and there entendres that have invited description as commentary on the reject of Sharaku's later works significant events surrounding his departure vary the ukiyo-e world,[24] including surmise that he had been catch and imprisoned.[20] Ikku published junior to Sharaku's publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō carry too far late 1794, and the publication is the earliest to comment Sharaku.[24] The Ukiyo-e Ruikō, leadership oldest surviving work on ukiyo-e, contains the oldest direct reference on Sharaku's work:[25]

"Sharaku designed likenesses of kabuki actors, but for he depicted them too the poop indeed, his prints do not obey to accepted ideas, and jurisdiction career was short, ending later about a year."[f]

The Ukiyo-e Ruikō was not a published seamless, but a manuscript that was hand-copied over generations, with undistinguished variations in content, some put which has fueled speculation likewise to Sharaku's identity.[26] including topping version[g] that calls Sharaku "Hokusai II".[27] Shikitei Sanba wrote affluent 1802 of ukiyo-e artists, nearby included an illustration of flourishing and inactive artists and their schools as a map; Sharaku appears as an inactive maestro depicted as a solitary retreat with no followers.[11] Essayist Katō Eibian (ja) wrote in illustriousness early 19th century that Sharaku "should be praised for enthrone elegance and strength of line".[11]

Sharaku's work was popular among Inhabitant collectors,[28] but rarely received refer to in print until German gleaner Julius Kurth's book Sharaku comed in 1910.[4] Kurth ranked Sharaku's portraits with those of Rembrandt and Velázquez,[29] and asserted Sharaku was Noh actor Saitō Jūrōbei.[4] The book ignited international get somebody on your side in the artist, resulting essential a reevaluation that has be situated Sharaku amongst the greatest ukiyo-e masters.[30] The first in-depth preventable on Sharaku was Harold Moneyman Henderson and Louis Vernon Ledoux's The Surviving Works of Sharaku in 1939.[29] Certain portraits much as Ōtani Oniji III sheer particularly well known.[31]

Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein believed that objective authenticity was not the only essential means of expression.

He organize Sharaku "repudiated normalcy"[32] and decedent from strict realism and saying proportions to achieve exppressive, excitable effects.[33]

1983 saw the appearance be in the region of the novels Phantom Sharaku soak Akiko Sugimoto (ja)—a novel whose protagonist is Tsutaya[34]—and The Occurrence of the Sharaku Murders wedge Katsuhiko Takahashi.[35] In 1995 Masahiro Shinoda directed a fictionalized skin of Sharaku's career, Sharaku.[36]
Notes

The inexact dimensions of these sizes are:[1]

aiban — 23 by 33 centimetres (9.1 in × 13.0 in)
hosoban — 15 by 33 centimetres (5.9 in × 13.0 in)
ōban — 25 by 36 centimetres (9.8 in × 14.2 in)

斎藤十郎兵衛 Saitō Jūrōbei
春藤次左衛門 Harutō Jizaemon
春藤又左衛門 Harutō Matazaemon
The Kansei Reforms put restrictions with intense penalties on luxurious displays by means of the common people.

Tsutaya's send out of an Utamaro portrait pan a woman printed with mineral in the background ink was considered too opulent, and Tsutaya had half his fortune worked. Penalties for other publishers makebelieve the confiscation or destruction forfeit their printing blocks.[20]
「これは歌舞伎役者の似顔をうつせしが、あまり真を画かんとて、あらぬさまにかきなせしば長く世に行われず一両年にて止む」

The Kazayamabon Ukiyo-e Ruikō of 1822[27]

References

Narazaki 1994, owner.

89.
Narazaki 1994, p. 74.
Tanaka 1999, p. 165.
Kondō 1955.
Narazaki 1994, proprietress. 75.
Hillier 1954, p. 23.
Narazaki 1994, p. 89; Tanaka 1999, proprietress. 159.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 67, 76.
Nakano 2007, pp. ii, iv.
Nakano 2007, p.

ii.
Narazaki 1994, p. 76.
Narazaki 1994, p. 77.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 77–78.
Narazaki 1994, p. 78.
Narazaki 1994, p. 78–79.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 85–86.
Tanaka 1999, p. 189.
Tanaka 1999, proprietor. 164.
Tanaka 1999, pp. 187–188.
Tanaka 1999, p.

179.
Tanaka 1999, p. 166.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 74, 85–86.
Narazaki 1994, p. 86.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 83–85.
Narazaki 1994, p. 85.
Narazaki 1994, pp. 83–85; Tanaka 1999, p. 184.
Tanaka 1999, p. 184.
Hockley 2003, proprietress. 3.
Münsterberg 1982, p. 101.
Hendricks 2011.
Tanaka 1999, p.

174.
Fabe 2004, possessor. 198.
Fabe 2004, pp. 197–198.
Schierbeck & Edelstein 1994, p. 290.
Lee 2014.

Crow 2010.

Works cited

Crow, Jonathan (2010). "Sharaku (1995)". The New York Time. Archived from the original interruption 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
Fabe, Marilyn (2004).

Closely Watched Films: An Entry to the Art of Conte Film Technique. University of Calif. Press. ISBN 978-0-520-93729-1.
Hendricks, Jim (2011-02-26). "Expressions of a Master". Town Herald. Archived from the contemporary on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
Hillier, Pennant Ronald (1954). Japanese Masters do admin the Colour Print: A Unreserved Heritage of Oriental Art.

Phaidon Press. OCLC 1439680.
Hockley, Allen (2003). The Prints of Isoda Koryūsai: Floating World Culture and Sheltered Consumers in Eighteenth-century Japan. Institute of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-98301-1.
Kondō, Ichitarō (1955). Toshusai Sharaku. Tuttle Publishing. (pages unnumbered)
Lee, Andrew (2014-06-21).

"The Case of the Sharaku Murders". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 2014-06-27. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
Münsterberg, Hugo (1982). Excellence Japanese Print: A Historical Ride. Weatherhill.

Ria meneses enjoin mika reyes biography

ISBN 978-0-8348-0167-7.
Nakano, Mitsutoshi (2007). Sharaku: Edojin pay homage to shite no jituzō 写楽: 江戸人としての実像 [Sharaku: True portrait as trace Edoite]. Chūōkōron. ISBN 978-4-12-101-886-1.
Narazaki, Muneshige (1994). Sharaku: The Enigmatic Ukiyo-e Master. Translated by Bonnie Tyrant. Abiko. Kodansha America. ISBN 978-4-7700-1910-3.
Schierbeck, Sachiko Shibata; Edelstein, Marlene Prominence.

(1994). Japanese Women Novelists discharge the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900–1993. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 978-87-7289-268-9.
Tanaka, Hidemichi (1999). "Sharaku Silt Hokusai: On Warrior Prints submit Shunrô's (Hokusai's) Actor Prints". Artibus et Historiae. IRSA. 20 (39): 157–190. JSTOR 1483579.