Kabuki Actor Morita Kan’ya VIII as the Palanquin-Bearer in the Play A Medley of Tales of Revenge (Katakiuchi noriaibanashi)

This 1794 Toshusai Sharaku [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows Morita Kan'ya VIII as the palanquin-bearer in the play A Medley of Tales of Revenge (Katakiuchi noriaibanashi). The print belongs to the same theatrical run that produced several other Sharaku portraits in the okubi-e format, all designed for the Edo publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo at the height of the artist's brief but pivotal contribution to Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).

The palanquin-bearer is a chonin laborer, and Sharaku's portrait stays close to that social reality. Kan'ya VIII's face is drawn with broad cheekbones, a square jaw, and a mouth opened in a small, almost grunted phrase as if mid-effort. The brows are knit, the eyes narrowed into the concentration of physical work, and the lines along the cheek and around the mouth are kept on the surface rather than smoothed away. The artist's refusal to flatter is one of the qualities that has made his bust portraits a touchstone for later students of the genre.