The Second Nakamura Sukegoro as an Old Man

Held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dated circa 1788, this Katsukawa Shunkō print depicts the second Nakamura Sukegorō in a role as an old man. Nakamura Sukegorō II (1734–1791) was a major Edo kabuki actor whose career spanned the mid- to late-eighteenth century, and his appearances in old-man roles (jitsuaku or rōyaku) were a recurring subject for Katsukawa-school portraitists. Old-man kabuki characters — typically wise retainers, scheming ministers, or aged warriors — required a particular visual vocabulary of white hair, lined faces, and stooped posture, and the actor's skill at conveying age through movement and voice was one of the connoisseur's points of appreciation. Shunkō's portrait gives the actor's likeness as itself, beneath the old-age makeup, in keeping with the Katsukawa-school commitment to individualized depiction: the viewer was meant to recognize Sukegorō playing an old man, not simply an anonymous old man on stage. The late-1780s date places this work in Shunkō's mature middle period, just before his stroke would end his career. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings of Nakamura Sukegorō prints make it possible to trace the actor's career across multiple roles and several Katsukawa designers.