The Actor Sawamura Sōjūrō III in the Role of Shimada Jūzaburō, from the series "Image of Actors on Stage"

From his groundbreaking series Yakusha butai no sugata-e (Image of Actors on Stage, also translated as Views of Actors on Stage), Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825) here portrays Sawamura Sōjūrō III in the role of Shimada Jūzaburō. This series, published beginning in 1794 by Izumiya Ichibei, was the breakthrough work that established Toyokuni as the leading designer of yakusha-e in Edo, and many specialists consider it one of the supreme achievements of Edo ukiyo-e actor portraiture. The conceit of the series was to show actors in full body, on stage, captured in characteristic poses from current productions, with backgrounds and props sufficient to identify the specific play and scene to an informed viewer. Sawamura Sōjūrō III (1753-1801) was among the most admired Edo actors of his generation, celebrated for handsome male roles and for a refined acting style that contrasted with the bombastic Ichikawa Danjūrō line. Toyokuni's treatment of him in the role of Shimada Jūzaburō places attention on stance, the fall of the kimono, and the precise registration of crest and pattern that signaled the character. The series circulated in parallel with Sharaku's now-famous actor portraits of 1794-95, and where Sharaku exaggerated, Toyokuni elegantly observed; the contemporary market preferred Toyokuni overwhelmingly, and the long arc of his commercial success rested on this foundation. The 1785 cataloguing date attached to this impression at the Metropolitan Museum of Art predates the series and reflects an earlier convention; the print itself belongs to the 1794-96 cycle.