by Ouchi Makoto
Key value factors: For living or recently deceased artists, limited edition size and gallery representation drive value. Signed and numbered prints from smaller editions are most desirable.
"Sharaku" from 1968 is an intaglio print that pays homage to Toshusai Sharaku, the enigmatic [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) artist known for his dramatically exaggerated kabuki actor portraits produced during a brief, explosive ten-month career in 1794-95. Ouchi Makoto engages with Sharaku not by copying his compositions but by channeling the spirit of bold characterization and unflinching psychological intensity into a modern idiom. The intaglio technique, with its capacity for rich blacks and subtle tonal gradation, offers a natural parallel to Sharaku's own dramatic contrasts. By titling the work simply "Sharaku," Ouchi invites viewers to consider what it means for a contemporary artist to claim artistic kinship with a figure whose true identity remains one of art history's great unsolved mysteries.
Sharaku was created by Ouchi Makoto (大内マコト) in 1968.
Sharaku uses Etching, on intaglio.
