Ichikawa Ebizō IV as Takemura Sadanojō in the Play Koinyōbō Somewake Tazuna

This 1794 okubi-e by Toshusai Sharaku, held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows Ichikawa Ebizo IV in the role of Takemura Sadanojo in the play Koinyobo Somewake Tazuna (The Colored Reins of a Loving Wife), one of the kabuki dramas running in Edo during Sharaku's brief productive window with the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo. The sheet belongs to the body of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) for which Sharaku is now most celebrated within the larger history of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).

Ebizo IV is drawn with the full weight of his stage authority. The face is broad, the jaw heavy, the brows set in a low frown, and the mouth pulled into a tight, slightly downturned line that suggests the character's bitterness within the play's moral pressures. The eyes are narrowed and unaligned in their direction, a Sharaku habit that ties the portrait to a moment of action rather than to a posed studio likeness; the actor seems to be watching another character cross the stage just off-print. The deep lines along the nose and around the mouth are rendered without prettification and contribute to the sense of an older, hardened man rather than an idealized stage type.