This portrait of Matsumoto Koshiro IV by Toshusai Sharaku depicts the actor in a dual role characteristic of kabuki dramaturgy: he plays the boatman Minagawa Shin'emon of Reisengasaki in Kamakura, who is secretly Hata Rokurozaemon Tokiyoshi, a samurai concealed within a laborer's life. The convention of disguised identity provided Sharaku with material that suited his analytical sensibility, allowing him to register the friction between assumed and true nature in a single observed face. The composition concentrates attention on the head and shoulders in the manner Sharaku favored, building on the okubi-e tradition with firm contour lines, precise rendering of the brow and mouth, and a controlled palette that gives the figure sculptural weight. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression as part of its substantial Sharaku holdings, allowing scholars to study the artist's repeated engagements with Koshiro IV across different roles. Published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, whose firm financed Sharaku's brief but prolific career, the print combines fine block carving with careful registration of colors to produce a luxury object in the genre of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e). Within the broader landscape of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e), this work stands as an example of how Sharaku transformed routine theatrical portraiture into a vehicle for psychological observation, refusing the smoothing conventions that other contemporary print designers favored. The result is one of the more analytically incisive treatments of dual identity in the Edo theatrical tradition, and a primary record of Koshiro IV's range as a leading actor of the period.
1794
Color woodblock print; aiban
1794
Color woodblock print; hosoban
1794
Color woodblock print; oban
1794
Color woodblock print; oban
The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV as the Boatman Minagawa Shin'emon of Reisengasaki in Kamakura, Actually Hata Rokurozaemon Tokiyoshi (Yondai-me Matsumoto Koshiro no Kamakura Reizengasaki no sendo Minagawa Shin'emon, jitsuwa Hata Rokurozaemon) was created by Tōshūsai Sharaku (東洲斎写楽) in 1794 (Kansei 6).
The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV as the Boatman Minagawa Shin'emon of Reisengasaki in Kamakura, Actually Hata Rokurozaemon Tokiyoshi (Yondai-me Matsumoto Koshiro no Kamakura Reizengasaki no sendo Minagawa Shin'emon, jitsuwa Hata Rokurozaemon) depicts sumo.
