Description
It is possible that this print is part of a diptych with the actor Nakamura Nakazo I. Though the precise date of the production pictured is unknown, the two actors performed together during the late 1770s and 1788-1789.
Other impressions of this print can be found in institutions such as Waseda University Theatre Museum, Tokyo, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (diptych).
About the artist
A student of Shunsho, Shunei Katsukawa was a prolific and successful woodblock print artist. Most active from the mid-1780s through the 1790s, his earliest known work is an illustrated book published in 1782. He is credited as one of the first artists to popularize the emerging okubi-e, or “big head,” style portraits. In addition to actor prints, Shunei designed studies of sumo wrestlers. A contemporary of Toyokuni I and Sharaku, Shunei’s prints are distinctive in their active, yet balanced compositions and dramatic flair.