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Onoe Tatsunosuke I as Ono Sadakuro in Act 5, from "Six Acts from Kanadehon Chushjingura". by Tsuruya Kokei — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Onoe Tatsunosuke I as Ono Sadakuro in Act 5, from "Six Acts from Kanadehon Chushjingura".

by Tsuruya Kokei

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Saru Gallery

Description

Act V of Kanadehon Chushingura centers on Ono Sadakuro, a masterless samurai turned highway robber who murders the elderly Yoichibei for a purse of gold during a rainstorm before being shot by chance from a hunter's matchlock. Kokei's portrait isolates Tatsunosuke's face against a flat field, the actor's expression registering the role's combination of nihilistic calm and predatory alertness. The print uses the okubi-e (large-head) format adapted from Edo-period yakusha-e, with delicate keyblock impressions on ganpi paper. Subtle bokashi gradations across the kimono and the ground tone are achieved through repeated hand-rubbed baren application. Produced during Kokei's residency at the Kabuki-za, this work belongs to a series documenting principal roles of the late twentieth-century stage and consciously inherits the half-length portrait tradition of Sharaku and Shun'ei.

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Onoe Tatsunosuke I as Ono Sadakuro in Act 5, from "Six Acts from Kanadehon Chushjingura". was created by Tsuruya Kokei (弦屋光溪).