"Sharaku's Caricatures" Sharaku no Giga

Edo zumi hyaku shoku series (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo)

Medium: Japanese Woodblock Print

Date: 2011

Image size: Oban - 15 x 11 in.

Signed and numbered in pencil with the series title cartouche in the upper right margin, the print title to the left.

Edition: 100.

Description: A young male model twists his body and spreads his hands to echo the dynamic image tattooed on his back, which is based on Tōshūsai Sharaku’s famous half-length portrait of Ōtani Oniji III (1794). The mask in the title cartouche is a caricature of the face of the famous Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō V. Beneath the artist’s signature is a rebus of the artist’s own face, comprising the stylized shapes of the letters of his fullname in English.

The print by Sharaku of Otani Oniji which forms the main tattoo design is one of the best-known prints of the enigmatic Sharaku, who only produced prints for a short time in 1794-5, but who has left us around 140 designs from that brief period. The unusual position of the hands in this print were the key to the dramatic, dynamic pose of the model, for though they represent the frozen action of the Kabuki stage, it could be the model is reacting to a loud noise or shock, and he is instinctively moving to protect himself. The similarity in the position of the hands of the tattoo and the live man is vital to this design. The small cartouche shows Ichikawa Ebizo, maybe one of the most striking faces in this group, and one which well deserves to be used as a caricature, and the seal here is Paul’s own self-caricature, made up of the letters of my name. This is the ninth design in the continuing series Edo Zumi Hayaku Shoku (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo) of tattoo prints.

In the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Condition: Mint.