Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/332

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Drawings of Actors
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Matsumoto Yonesaburō kneeling and an actor of the Segawa line, probably Segawa Yūjirō II, standing. The character indicating Yūjirō appears to have been written on the Segawa mon. The print is without background and is half the width of the others. The signature has been pasted on, and, as was noted in our preliminary remarks about the set, the drawing is said to bear the seal of Toyokuni which would indicate that at one time it had been owned by him. The seal is not visible in the reproductions.

It has been suggested that this half-width drawing was not for the final single page of the book for which the others apparently were made, but was a separate entity, perhaps designed to go into the set of two full-length figures on mica grounds, but never printed with them. The standing actor might be Segawa Tomisaburō or Segawa Kikunojō rather than Segawa Yūjirō, but even if that is the case the drawing could not represent any actual stage scene unless Yonesaburō who ordinarily was at the Kiri-za, could be shown to have become temporarily a member of the Miyako-za company and could be found to have played such a scene as that depicted with any of the Segawa actors mentioned.

This drawing was reproduced in the Barboutau Catalogue, number 218A, from which we have rephotographed it as Rumpf did for his Drawing number VIII, and as Kurth, Nakata and others have done.

Signed: Sharaku. Size: 8½×6 inches.

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