The Actor Ichikawa Yaozo lll as Soga no Juro Sukenari (Sandai-me Ichikawa Yaozo no Soga no Juro Sukenari)

This Toshusai Sharaku portrait depicts Ichikawa Yaozo III in the role of Soga no Juro Sukenari, the elder of the two famous Soga brothers whose narrative of fraternal vengeance was one of the most beloved subjects of Edo kabuki. The Soga plays were staged annually during the New Year and spring seasons, and the role of Juro carried particular dramatic weight as the more measured and reflective of the two avenging brothers. In this [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), Yaozo III's features are rendered with the analytic particularity that distinguishes Sharaku's contribution to Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e): the brow is firmly drawn, the gaze directed with calculated intensity, and the mouth set in a posture of restrained determination that suits the character's controlled grief and resolve. The composition aligns with Sharaku's preferred okubi-e mode, concentrating expressive resources in the head and upper body and using firmly drawn contours and a controlled palette to produce sculptural weight against an unmodulated ground. Costume details are rendered with care for both pattern and structural fall. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression among its substantial Sharaku holdings, providing scholars with primary material for the study of how the yakusha-e tradition treated the celebrated Soga narrative cycle. Published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, whose firm Tsutaya financed Sharaku's brief and prolific career, the print uses high-quality pigments and careful block registration to elevate the work to a luxury object suited to a discerning Edo audience, and it remains a primary document of the cultural world that produced it.