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Segawa Tomisaburō II as Yadorigi, the wife of Ōgishi Kurando whom we shall see depicted in the following number.
The outer kimono being held by the actor at his shoulder is black and is decorated with chrysanthemums in various colors. There is a rose under kimono, and the innermost one is in white.
To western critics this print seems one of the most malicious, or shall we say, most scornful of Sharaku’s portraits; and the weasel face, the effectively distorted eyebrows, the expression of utterly banal vulgarity, are all the more striking when one remembers that these actors of the Segawa line had been famous for generations for their impersonations of women and the supreme grace which had marked with distinction every motion of their flowing draperies. Kiyohiro and Shunshō had been stirred by Segawa actors to their loveliest creations; Bunchō had made one of them immortal in prints whose beauty he never reached again; and here Sharaku, emphasizing as is his wont the animal characteristics, the littlenesses of conceit and vulgarity in an actor, breaks through the dream and dispels it in a realism that has gone on into satire. It is no wonder that the earliest comment on his work speaks of it as filled with exaggeration. But notice the eyebrows, not only here but in many of the other bust-portraits as well. Has any other artist ever made eyebrows play so important and so varied a part in his compositions? The print is a master-piece from whatever point of view it may be judged, and we are fortunate in having at least one of the four impressions in America so perfect in condition.
The very fine impression reproduced in plate 184 of the large catalogue of the Moslé Collection and now in Chicago, is somewhat trimmed at the top and is rephotographed by Kurth, Noguchi and Nakata. The Koechlin impression in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 272, which also is trimmed at the top, is reproduced again as Rumpf number 21. The impression in the Louvre, reproduced in color by Benesch, is, like the one we exhibit, untrimmed at the top but is slightly longer than ours at the bottom.
Ōban. Dark mica ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.
Museum of Fine Arts (Spaulding Collection).
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