Page 285 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

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TOSHUSAI SHARAKU (ACT. 1794-95)
The actor Matsumoto Yonesaburo as the courtesan
Kewaizaka no Shosho, Actually Shinobu, the Younger
Daughter of Matsushita Mikinoshin
Woodblock print with silver mica ground, signed Toshusai Sharaku
ga, published by Tsutaya Juzaburo (Koshodo), 5th month 1794
Vertical oban: 15 x 10 in. (38.1 x 25.4 cm.)
$150,000-250,000

The play is the story of the revenge taken by two sisters, Miyagino
and Shinobu (shown here), for their father Matsushita Mikinoshin,
who has been murdered by Shiga Daishichi. This character has
become a courtesan in order to gain access to the assassin. Other
impressions are held in the Spaulding and the Bigelow collections
of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Musée National des Arts
Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris; and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The ground of thick, dark mica is indicative of luxury production
by the publisher, Tsutaya Juzaburo, who was the promoter genius
behind so many great artists of the late eighteenth century, among
them Utamaro, Choki, Kitao Masanobu and Kiyonaga. The seal
of a clump of ivy under Mount Fuji in the lower left of this image
refers to the publisher’s establishment, Tsutaya, House of the Ivy.
Tsutaya composed poetry with other sophisticates in the Yoshiwara
Circle under the name Tsuta no Karamaru, Entwined in the Ivy.

Tsutaya’s collaboration with Sharaku took place in ten months
in 1794, resulting in twenty-eight actor close-ups of astonishing
boldness and invention. They are close-ups in the modern sense,
using a raised eyebrow, a furrowed brow, single prop or simple
gesture to snap the scene. Debate continues on whether the
existence of so few of the actor likenesses is because they were
unpopular for their frankness or whether Tsutaya found their
production too expensive. A reasonable theory proposed by Asano
Shugo is that Tsutaya only released small editions on account of
their fine printing, coloring and embellishments in the manner of
deluxe commissions of surimono and poetry albums.