The Actor Bando Matakuro I

Bando Matakuro I, an Edo actor whose career spanned the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, is depicted here in a single full-figure tan-e of around 1700. Kiyonobu adopts the standard Torii formula for the [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) actor print: a slightly angled stance, an exaggerated outline of the calves and forearms, and a costume rendered in just enough detail to identify a particular role. The orange tan applied to the kimono and the small accents of yellow at the hem and sleeves were typical of Edo coloring shops of the period, where teams of workers added pigment by brush to each individual sheet after it left the printer. This Art Institute of Chicago impression preserves the original tan coloring in unusually fresh condition, allowing modern viewers to see the print closer to its original appearance than is the case for many surviving Genroku-era sheets.