The Actor Nakajima Wadaemon as Migawari no Jizo, the Master of the House, from Inamuragasaki in Kamakura (Nakajima Wadaemon no Kamakura Inamuragaasaki no yanushi, Migawari no Jizo)

Toshusai Sharaku's portrait of Nakajima Wadaemon depicts the actor as Migawari no Jizo, the master of the house, from Inamuragasaki in Kamakura, a role drawn from the layered domestic narratives that filled the Edo kabuki season. Wadaemon was a character actor whose distinctive features made him a recurrent subject in Sharaku's [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) output, and the artist's analytic eye is particularly visible in his treatments of supporting players, whose faces he renders with the same care as those of leading stars. In this print, the composition concentrates attention on the head and upper body in the okubi-e tradition that Sharaku favored, with firmly drawn contours of the brow and mouth, a precise rendering of the gaze, and a controlled palette that gives sculptural weight to the figure. Costume details are observed with care for both pattern and structural fall, signaling the character's social position as the master of a household. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression among its substantial Sharaku holdings, providing scholars with primary material for the study of late Edo theatrical portraiture and the social world it documented. Published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, whose firm Tsutaya financed Sharaku's brief but extraordinary career, the print uses careful pigment selection and precise block registration to elevate the work to a luxury object in the broader landscape of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e). The image remains a primary document of how Sharaku turned the conventions of yakusha-e into a vehicle for sustained character observation.