The Actor Ichikawa Yaozō III

This Toshusai Sharaku [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, presents a bust portrait of the actor Ichikawa Yaozo III, a major star of the Edo kabuki stage in the Kansei era. The Met records the sheet under an earlier date of 1784, while the body of literature on Sharaku assigns his portraits to his publishing run with Tsutaya Juzaburo across 1794-1795; under either reading the print belongs to the artist's brief but transformative contribution to Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).

Sharaku draws Yaozo III with the characteristic analytic frankness that distinguishes his okubi-e from earlier actor prints. The face is long, the cheekbones high, the mouth held in a thin, slightly turned line, and the eyes drawn under a steady, half-knit brow. Asymmetries in the eyes and around the mouth are preserved rather than smoothed, and the lines along the nose and jaw register the individual physiognomy of a working actor rather than the idealized type that other Edo ukiyo-e schools favored. The result is a portrait that reads as a specific living person caught at a specific stage moment.