Actor Nakamura Sukegorô II as a Chivalrous Commoner (Otokodate)

Katsukawa Shunsho's portrait of Nakamura Sukegoro II as an otokodate, the chivalrous commoner-hero of Edo theater, is held in the Art Institute of Chicago and represents the artist's mature approach to the yakusha-e tradition he transformed. The otokodate, a townsman who defends ordinary people from corrupt samurai and unscrupulous merchants, was one of kabuki's most beloved character types, embodying the urban code of giri and ninjo (duty and human feeling) that animated so much Edo period theater. Nakamura Sukegoro II was particularly noted for his powerful presence in such roles, his physical bearing conveying the swaggering confidence and underlying moral seriousness that the part required. Shunsho's design captures the actor in a characteristic stance, with the boldly patterned kimono opened to suggest the readiness for action that defined the otokodate's stage identity. As founder of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho was the principal innovator of Edo ukiyo-e portraiture, replacing the generic actor types of earlier Torii school designs with carefully observed individual likenesses. This approach produced a wholly new mode of yakusha-e that dominated the market from the late 1760s until the rise of Toshusai Sharaku and Utagawa Toyokuni in the 1790s. Shunsho's pupils, including Shunko, Shun'ei, and briefly the young Hokusai, carried the Katsukawa style forward and adapted it to the changing tastes of subsequent decades. The Art Institute impression preserves the considered linework and balanced color organization that distinguished the master's own designs from those of his students, and the portrait remains a primary document of Sukegoro II's stage presence.