The actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Tsubone Iwafuji
- Date:
- 1847
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych (center: 1939.1034a)
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Toyokuni I's portrait of the actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Tsubone Iwafuji belongs squarely to the [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) tradition of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e), the kabuki actor prints in which Toyokuni made his reputation and shaped a generation of Utagawa-school followers. Tsubone Iwafuji is the formidable lady-in-waiting whose cruelty drives the famous play "Kagamiyama Kokyo no Nishikie," and Toyokuni renders her with the tight-lipped severity, raised brow, and stiff carriage that audiences expected of the role. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the impression preserves the chromatic intensity that Edo-period actor prints depended upon — saturated patterned robes, a face individuated enough to identify the star within his costume, and a graphic clarity calibrated for buyers who knew the play and the player both. As founder of the Utagawa lineage of yakusha-e, Toyokuni helped fix the conventions by which kabuki actor prints would be designed for the rest of the nineteenth century: the controlled posture, the legible mon or family crest, the inscriptions naming role and performer. Sawamura Sojuro V was among the late-Edo actors whose appearances Toyokuni and his school documented with the persistence of a modern celebrity press. The Art Institute's example allows close study of how Toyokuni balanced individual likeness against the demands of stage type, and how Edo ukiyo-e crystallized the memory of theatrical performances that otherwise survived only in playbills and word of mouth. For collectors of yakusha-e, the sheet stands as a representative late example.
early 1830s
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1796
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
1769–1825
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
c. 1830/35
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
The actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Tsubone Iwafuji was created by Utagawa Toyokuni I (歌川豊国) in 1847.
The actor Sawamura Sojuro V as Tsubone Iwafuji depicts mount fuji.