The actor Bando Hikosaburo III as Sagisaka Sanai

Designed in 1794 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, this Toshusai Sharaku okubi-e shows the actor Bando Hikosaburo III in the role of Sagisaka Sanai, a samurai character from the kabuki stage. The print belongs to the celebrated debut series Sharaku produced for the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo, a project whose roughly ten-month duration nevertheless transformed the way [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) was conceived in Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).

Sharaku records Hikosaburo III with the unflattering acuity that defines his portrait practice. The actor's face is long, the chin pronounced, the eyebrows drawn high above narrowed eyes that fix on something to the side of the viewer; the mouth is closed in a thin, almost grim line. The brows and the small downturned corners of the mouth together generate the contained aggression appropriate to a samurai role, with no resort to the standard prettifying conventions of earlier actor prints. The handling of the hair, with sharply drawn temple lines and a precise topknot, gives the head its weight and helps the bust read as a particular, photographable person rather than a stylized type.