The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV as Matsuo-maru in the Play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Fourth Month, 1779

This Katsukawa Shunsho print documents Matsumoto Koshiro IV as Matsuo-maru in the play Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, performed at the Nakamura Theater in the fourth month of 1779. Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, one of the three great works of Edo kabuki and bunraku, dramatizes the historical exile of the courtier-poet Sugawara no Michizane and centers in its fourth act on the harrowing dilemma of Matsuo-maru, a retainer who must decide whether his loyalty to Michizane's enemies will require him to sacrifice his own son. The role was a defining one for tachiyaku, demanding extreme emotional control and explosive moments of grief. Matsumoto Koshiro IV, one of the great actors of the late eighteenth century, was renowned for psychologically charged performances, and his Matsuo-maru drew particular notice. Shunsho's Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e for the production, held by the Art Institute of Chicago, applies the Katsukawa school's hallmark actor-likeness, building Koshiro IV's identity from his particular facial structure rather than from generic theatrical convention. The hosoban format concentrates the composition on the figure and his elaborate Matsuo-maru costume, while the printer's careful registration of color blocks and pattern preserves the visual richness of the stage. As a record of a celebrated actor in one of the canonical roles of the Edo kabuki repertoire, the sheet sits at the heart of what Shunsho and the Katsukawa school set out to do: to make printed actor portraits that were both faithful documents of performance and durable works of decorative art.