Morita Kan'ya XIII as Jean Valjean

Yakusha-e of Morita Kan'ya XIII in the role of Jean Valjean from a Japanese stage adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. The print is unusual within the yakusha-e tradition for depicting a Western literary figure rather than a classical kabuki role: Morita Kan'ya XIII was active in Tokyo theater of the early twentieth century and was associated with productions that incorporated translated Western drama alongside the traditional repertoire. Yamamura registers the encounter between Japanese and Western theatrical conventions in the costume itself — workman's smock or convict's clothing rather than kimono and obi — while retaining the okubi-e attention to facial structure and gaze. The sheet was produced through the standard shin-hanga collaboration of artist, carver, and printer on hōsho washi using nishiki-e polychrome blocks, and documents a moment in early Shōwa Tokyo when kabuki families absorbed European literary material. It sits within Yamamura's broader interest in actors of the reformist generation alongside more conventional historical roles.