Shin Nigao: Nakamura Tôzô in the role of Susanô no Mikoto

Issued as part of the 'Shin Nigao' (New Portraits) series, this print depicts Nakamura Tôzô in the role of Susanô no Mikoto, the storm deity of Shinto myth whose narrative cycle—descent from heaven, banishment, slaying of the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi—has been adapted to kabuki and the dance-drama stage. The role calls for vigorous male presentation, and Shunsen's portrait renders the actor's features with the authority appropriate to a deity, the hair likely arranged in the bound-up style of mythic figures and the costume drawing on archaic court or warrior conventions. The 'Shin Nigao' series, launched in 1925 with publisher Watanabe Shôzaburô, was Shunsen's first sustained body of actor portraits and established the format—bust-length figure against neutral ground, carved with delicate precision, printed on heavy washi with kira-zuri mica accents—that he returned to throughout his career. The series reframed yakusha-e for the twentieth-century collector.