Actor Sawamura Gennosuke Riding on Ox as Sugawara no Michizane

This 1800 woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni shows the kabuki actor Sawamura Gennosuke in the role of Sugawara no Michizane, the ninth-century scholar-statesman whose posthumous deification as the deity Tenjin made him one of the most enduring subjects of Japanese theater and visual culture. The actor is depicted riding an ox, a familiar attribute of Michizane drawn from the legends surrounding his exile from the imperial court to Dazaifu in Kyushu. Toyokuni, the leading designer of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) (actor prints) in his generation, gives Gennosuke a contemplative bearing appropriate to a literary courtier rather than a warrior, balancing the dignity of the historical figure against the recognizable likeness of the contemporary performer.