The Actor Sawamura Sojuro III as Nagoya Sanza Motoharu (Sandai-me Sawamura Sojuro no Nagoya Sanza Motoharu)

Toshusai Sharaku's portrait of Sawamura Sojuro III in the role of Nagoya Sanza Motoharu treats one of the most enduring figures in the kabuki repertoire, a dashing romantic figure whose theatrical contests with the rival Fuwa no Banzaemon were a perennial subject of Edo stage entertainment. In this yakusha-e, Sojuro III's features are rendered with the precise particularity that marks Sharaku's contribution to Edo ukiyo-e: the eyebrows are firmly drawn, the gaze directed with calculated intensity, and the mouth set in the posture of restrained challenge that the role of Nagoya Sanza demands. The composition aligns with Sharaku's preferred okubi-e mode, concentrating attention on the head and upper body, with carefully observed costume details and a controlled palette that produces sculptural weight against an unmodulated ground. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression among its substantial Sharaku holdings, providing scholars with primary material for the study of late eighteenth-century theatrical portraiture. Published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, whose firm Tsutaya financed Sharaku's prolific but brief career, the print uses careful pigment selection and precise block registration to elevate the work to a luxury object suited to a discerning audience. Within the broader tradition of Edo ukiyo-e, this image remains a primary document of how Sharaku transformed routine theatrical portraiture into a vehicle for sustained character analysis, and of how the genre of yakusha-e reached one of its most concentrated peaks of expression in the closing decade of the eighteenth century.