Ichikawa Yaozo II as Sakuramaru

In this Katsukawa Shunsho hosoban yakusha-e, Ichikawa Yaozo II appears as Sakuramaru, one of the three brothers (Matsuomaru, Umeomaru and Sakuramaru) at the heart of the celebrated kabuki and joruri drama Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami. Of the three, Sakuramaru is the youngest and most tragic figure, the courtier whose negligence sets in motion the exile of Sugawara no Michizane and who ultimately takes his own life in atonement. The role required a refined, sympathetic male presentation, and Yaozo II was a leading wagoto-influenced player of late An'ei Edo. Shunsho's Katsukawa school portrait treats him in the school's characteristic manner: the figure occupies most of the narrow sheet, costume rendered with firm contour and flat colour, the face individualised so that viewers could recognise the actor independently of his role. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds this impression. As part of a corpus of Shunsho's hosoban portraits of mid-1770s Edo casting, it records both an instance of a much-staged role and the working practice of the Katsukawa school at the moment when its dominance of Edo ukiyo-e actor portraiture was being consolidated. Together with related sheets of Yaozo II in other roles, it gives a small but precise insight into the visual identity of a leading Edo kabuki player at the height of the An'ei period.