Shin Nigao: Nakamura Genjirô I in the role of ôboshi Yuranosuke

This print belongs to Shunsen's Shin Nigao ("New Portraits") series, produced for the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō between 1925 and 1929 and a precursor to his later Creative Prints of Kabuki Actors. Ôboshi Yuranosuke is the central protagonist of Kanadehon Chūshingura, the leader of the forty-seven rōnin who plot vengeance for their disgraced lord. Yakusha-e of Yuranosuke conventionally depict him in moments of strategic concealment — feigning dissipation in the Ichiriki teahouse, or reading the letter that risks betraying the conspirators — and the role demands a restrained, weighty stage presence carrying the moral burden of the drama. Nakamura Genjirō I was a leading tachiyaku of the Kansai stage in the late Meiji and Taishō eras. Shunsen's portraits of this period are characterised by close half-length framing in the manner of Sharaku, a flat or lightly textured ground, and bokashi gradation in the costume; the carving and printing were entrusted to the workshop artisans whose precision in nishiki-e overprinting distinguished Watanabe's shin-hanga editions from contemporary commercial actor prints.