Shin Nagao: Fushimi Taishi

This print, which appears to belong to Shunsen's 'Shin Nigao' (New Portraits) framework, depicts an actor in the role of a figure identified as Fushimi Taishi—possibly a kabuki adaptation of a historical or legendary prince associated with the Fushimi region south of Kyoto, where the Fushimi Inari shrine and Fushimi castle have long generated dramatic material. Without the actor's name in the title, the print reads as a role study, with Shunsen's concentration on the carved articulation of the face and the structured patterning of the costume. The portrait would have been printed by the Watanabe atelier on dampened washi, using nishiki-e color application across multiple woodblocks and finishing techniques such as bokashi gradation in the background and selective embossing. As part of Shunsen's broader corpus, the work sits alongside his canonical Shin Nigao portraits and continues his program of portraying the leading actors of the early Shôwa kabuki stage in a modernized yakusha-e idiom.