The Actor Ichikawa Danjurō

This 1881 color woodblock print, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, depicts the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjurō, almost certainly Ichikawa Danjurō IX (1838-1903), the dominant male-lead actor of the Meiji kabuki stage. Danjurō IX, born Horikoshi Hisamatsu and son of Danjurō VII, headed the Ichikawa lineage during the years of Morikawa Chikashige's active career and was one of the most frequently depicted figures in Meiji yakusha-e. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria describes the print as showing a single figure holding a bucket above his head against a spray of decorative foliage, with the paper impressed with a textured pattern in the area of the figure's lapel and four calligraphic inscriptions arranged in pairs in the upper portion of the sheet, all conventions of the late ukiyo-e actor portrait. The print is signed by Chikashige and represents the single-sheet yakusha-e format he used alongside his more numerous triptychs. The bucket prop and floral spray suggest the depiction of a specific kabuki role rather than a generic portrait, in keeping with the role-specific convention of yakusha-e. The print is held in the Asian art holdings of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, one of the smaller but more substantial North American collections of Meiji-era Japanese prints.