The Actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I as Hisamatsu

This hashira-e (pillar print) urushi-e in the Art Institute of Chicago depicts the kabuki actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu I (1722-1762) in the role of Hisamatsu, the male lead of the perennial Osome-Hisamatsu love-suicide cycle. Ichimatsu was one of the great wakashu-gata (young male role) stars of mid-eighteenth-century Edo kabuki, and his fashion influence was considerable; the checkered pattern still called ichimatsu in Japanese is named for the kimono he favored on stage. Shigenaga, the pioneer of the hashira-e format, designs the actor for the narrow vertical pillar print, his elongated body and flowing robes filling the tall sheet from top to bottom. Urushi-e technique applies lacquered ink to hair and dark passages and adds hand-brushed beni to the costume. The hashira-e was intended to be pasted to the wooden pillars of Edo townhouse interiors, where it functioned as both decoration and celebrity image; the actor pillar print thus brought kabuki star presence directly into the domestic sphere. The Chicago impression preserves the urushi gloss and color in usable state and documents both Ichimatsu's career and Shigenaga's mastery of the hashira-e format.