Japanese Moviestar Kurishima Sumiko

Kurishima Sumiko (1902–1987) was a Shochiku silent-film actress whose popularity peaked in the 1920s, when she repeatedly placed at the top of Japanese fan magazine polls. Tokuriki, sharing her birth year, was working in Kyoto when her films were widely circulated, and this print departs from his usual landscape practice into the realm of celebrity portraiture, a genre adjacent to traditional [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) prints of kabuki actors. The image likely presents Kurishima in modern Taisho or early Showa dress, perhaps in a posed studio attitude derived from a film still or publicity photograph. Such portraits typically used a limited palette and clean linework printed from a key-block, with carefully registered color blocks for the kimono or Western garment. The print sits within a small subset of Tokuriki's early career output where he engaged with the popular culture of his time rather than the temples and seasonal scenes that would dominate his later work.