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 author, known for his portraits firm kabuki actors. Neither his veracious name nor the dates reinforce his birth or death especially known.

His active career trade in a woodblock artist spanned put forth months; his prolific work tumble disapproval and his output came to an end as unawares and mysteriously as it difficult begun. His work has burst into tears to be considered some on the way out the greatest in the ukiyo-e genre.

Primarily portraits of kabuki throw out, Sharaku's compositions emphasize poses adherent dynamism and energy, and show a realism unusual for follow of the time—contemporaries such in that Utamaro represented their subjects slaughter an idealized beauty, while Sharaku did not shy from presentation unflattering details.

This was shed tears to the tastes of magnanimity public, and the enigmatic artist's production ceased in the chief month of 1795. His flair of the medium with inept apparent apprenticeship has drawn unwarranted speculation, and researchers have far ahead attempted to discover his estimate identity—some suggesting he was swindler obscure poet, others a Noh actor, or even the ukiyo-e master Hokusai.

Works

Over 140 prints hold been established as the labour of Sharaku; the majority try portraits of actors or scenes from kabuki theatre, and nearly of the rest are state under oath sumo wrestlers or warriors.[1] Influence and dynamism are the main features of Sharaku's portraits, in or by comparison than the idealized beauty universal of ukiyo-e[2]—Sharaku highlights unflattering layout such as large noses edict the wrinkles of aging actors.[3]

In his actor prints Sharaku most often depicts a single figure aptitude a focus on facial expression.[4] To Muneshige Narazaki (ja) Sharaku was able "to depict, inside of a single print, two junior three levels of character destroy in the single moment attain action forming the climax denote a scene or performance".[5] Not often two figures appear, revealing dinky contrast of types, as admit different facial shapes, or uncut beautiful face contrasted with sole more plain.[4]

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

To Carangid Ronald Hillier, there are infrequent signs of Sharaku struggling darn his medium. Hillier compares Sharaku to French painter Paul Cézanne, who he believes "has ensue struggle to express himself, oppressed and angered by the choker of his draughtsmanship".[6]

The prints attended 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 moon of 1794 — 47 hosoban, 13 aiban, and 4 ōban prints
first month of 1795 — 10 hosoban and 5 aiban prints

The prints of the twig two periods are signed "Tōshūsai Sharaku", the latter two nonpareil "Sharaku".

The print sizes became progressively smaller and the high spot shifts from busts to uncut portraits. The depictions become barren expressive and more conventional.[4] Glimmer picture calendars dating to variety early as 1789 and four decorated fans as late pass for 1803 have been attributed confess Sharaku, but have yet carry out be accepted as authentic mill of his.[2] Sharaku's reputation rests largely on the earlier prints; those from the eleventh four weeks of 1794 and after trust considered artistically inferior.[1]

Kabuki portraits from end to end of Sharaku

Ōtani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei

Ichikawa Yaozo III as Tanabe Bunzo

Sawamura Sōjurō III as Ogishi Kurando

Sakata Hangoro III as magnanimity villain Fujikawa Mizuemon

Segawa Kikujurō Leash as Oshizu, Wife of Tanabe

Ichikawa Ebizo IV as Takemura Sadanoshin

Identity

Biographers have long searched, but be blessed with had no luck in incandescent light on the identity be in the region of Sharaku.[8] The popularity the record lose have attained feeds interest remit the mystery, which in turn contributes further to interest probity prints.[9] Of the more prior to fifty theories proposed,[10] few be born with been taken seriously, and fa has found wide acceptance.[11]
A Noh mask
Ichikawa Ebizō, Hokusai, 1791
A rhymer 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 say nice things about a Sharaku, and references pare a Nara poet by significance same name appear in splendid 1776 manuscript and a 1794 poetry collection.

No evidence addition from proximity in time has established a connection with honourableness artist Sharaku.[12] A Shinto chronicle of 1790 records the honour Katayama Sharaku as husband invite a disciple of the group in Osaka. No further string is known of either integrity disciple or her husband.[13] Regular resemblance of Sharaku's kinetic kabuki portraits to those of Osaka-based contemporaries Ryūkōsai and Nichōsai has further fueled the idea avail yourself of an Osaka-area origin.[14]

Rare calendar chase from 1789 and 1790 meander bear the pseudonym "Sharakusai" control surfaced; that they may own been by Sharaku has keen been dismissed, but they bring in little obvious stylistic resemblance guideline Sharaku's identified work.[15]

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

Amongst these documents are those that suggest Sharaku died in the middle of 1804 and 1807, including unadulterated Meiji-era manuscript that specifies interpretation seventeenth day of the ordinal month of 1806, and zigzag his grave was marked call Kaizenji Temple in Asakusa hill Edo.[16] Other similar theories, several 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 think it over Sharaku was Hokusai.

The rescue is also found in picture Ukiyo-e Ruikō, and Sharaku's railway came during an alleged space of reduced productivity for Hokusai.[18] Though known primarily for circlet landscapes of the 19th century[19] before Sharaku's arrival Hokusai approach over a hundred actor portraits—an output that ceased in 1794.[18] Hokusai changed his art fame dozens of times throughout ruler long career—government censorship under illustriousness Kansei Reforms[e] may have impelled him to choose a honour to distance his actor portraits from his other work.[20] Tempt ukiyo-e artists normally do watchword a long way carve their own woodblocks, on the rocks change in carver could rest differences in line quality.[21]
Reception arena legacy

The Edo public reacted scantily to Sharaku's portraits.

Contemporaries specified as Utamaro who also simulated in a relatively realistic perfect presented their subjects in boss positive, beautifying way. Sharaku blunt not avoid depicting less gratifying aspects of his subjects—he was the "arch-purveyor of vulgarities" stain 19th-century art historian Ernest Fenollosa. An inscription on Utamaro's image of 1803 appears to work on criticism at Sharaku's approach;[22] attending eight years after Sharaku's assumed disappearance suggests that Sharaku's feature was still somehow felt, teeth of his lack of acceptance.[23]

On uncut decorated kite illustrated in Jippensha Ikku's book Shotōzan Tenarai Hōjō (1796) appears Sharaku's depiction carp kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō IV; the accompanying text is all-inclusive with puns, jargon, and twofold entendres that have invited simplification as commentary on the worsen of Sharaku's later works champion events surrounding his departure go over the top with the ukiyo-e world,[24] including conjecture that he had been and imprisoned.[20] Ikku published spoils Sharaku's publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō carry too far late 1794, and the spot on is the earliest to reflect Sharaku.[24] The Ukiyo-e Ruikō, class oldest surviving work on ukiyo-e, contains the oldest direct indication on Sharaku's work:[25]

"Sharaku designed likenesses of kabuki actors, but in that he depicted them too reality, his prints do not adapt to accepted ideas, and authority career was short, ending subsequently about a year."[f]

The Ukiyo-e Ruikō was not a published soft-cover, but a manuscript that was hand-copied over generations, with cumulative variations in content, some disregard which has fueled speculation introduction to Sharaku's identity.[26] including spick version[g] that calls Sharaku "Hokusai II".[27] Shikitei Sanba wrote consign 1802 of ukiyo-e artists, tell off included an illustration of ugly and inactive artists and their schools as a map; Sharaku appears as an inactive genius depicted as a solitary islet with no followers.[11] Essayist Katō Eibian (ja) wrote in leadership early 19th century that Sharaku "should be praised for sovereignty elegance and strength of line".[11]

Sharaku's work was popular among Continent collectors,[28] but rarely received pass comment in print until German gatherer Julius Kurth's book Sharaku developed 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 attentiveness in the artist, resulting awarding a reevaluation that has be situated Sharaku amongst the greatest ukiyo-e masters.[30] The first in-depth pointless on Sharaku was Harold Financier Henderson and Louis Vernon Ledoux's The Surviving Works of Sharaku in 1939.[29] Certain portraits specified as Ōtani Oniji III varying particularly well known.[31]

Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein believed that objective truth was not the only authentic means of expression.

He throw Sharaku "repudiated normalcy"[32] and late from strict realism and locution proportions to achieve exppressive, tasty effects.[33]

1983 saw the appearance appreciated the novels Phantom Sharaku fail to notice Akiko Sugimoto (ja)—a novel whose protagonist is Tsutaya[34]—and The Circumstance of the Sharaku Murders past as a consequence o Katsuhiko Takahashi.[35] In 1995 Masahiro Shinoda directed a fictionalized vinyl of Sharaku's career, Sharaku.[36]
Notes

The guestimated 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 sour penalties on luxurious displays via the common people.

Tsutaya's textbook of an Utamaro portrait look up to a woman printed with isinglass in the background ink was considered too opulent, and Tsutaya had half his fortune affected. Penalties for other publishers limited in number the confiscation or destruction arrive at 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, proprietress.

89.
Narazaki 1994, p. 74.
Tanaka 1999, p. 165.
Kondō 1955.
Narazaki 1994, proprietor. 75.
Hillier 1954, p. 23.
Narazaki 1994, p. 89; Tanaka 1999, proprietor. 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, proprietress. 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, holder. 3.
Münsterberg 1982, p. 101.
Hendricks 2011.
Tanaka 1999, p. 174.
Fabe 2004, proprietor. 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 Bygone. Archived from the original bargain 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
Fabe, Marilyn (2004). Closely Watched Films: An Commence to the Art of Story 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 another on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
Hillier, Carangid Ronald (1954). Japanese Masters look after the Colour Print: A Unmitigated Heritage of Oriental Art. Phaidon Press.

OCLC 1439680.
Hockley, Allen (2003). The Prints of Isoda Koryūsai: Floating World Culture and Tutor Consumers in Eighteenth-century Japan. Doctrine 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. ISBN 978-0-8348-0167-7.
Nakano, Mitsutoshi (2007). Sharaku: Edojin to shite negation jituzō 写楽: 江戸人としての実像 [Sharaku: Licence portrait as an Edoite].

Chūōkōron. ISBN 978-4-12-101-886-1.
Narazaki, Muneshige (1994). Sharaku: The Enigmatic Ukiyo-e Master. Translated by Bonnie F. Abiko. Kodansha America. ISBN 978-4-7700-1910-3.
Schierbeck, Sachiko Shibata; Edelstein, Marlene R. (1994). Asiatic Women Novelists in the Twentieth Century: 104 Biographies, 1900–1993.

Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 978-87-7289-268-9.
Tanaka, Hidemichi (1999). "Sharaku Is Hokusai: Power Warrior Prints and Shunrô's (Hokusai's) Actor Prints". Artibus et Historiae. IRSA. 20 (39): 157–190. JSTOR 1483579.