Act Four: Enya Hangan's Castle from the play Chushingura (Treasury of the Forty-seven Loyal Retainers)
c. 1795
Medium
Color woodblock print; koban
Dimensions
23.7 × 18 cm (9 5/16 × 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
32477
Art Historical Context
Step into the dramatic world of 18th-century Japanese theater with Katsukawa Shun'ei's *Act Four: Enya H's Castle* from the iconic kabuki play *Chushingura* (Treasury of the Forty Loyal Retainers), created around 1795. This vibrant color woodblock print in the compact *koban* format—measuring just 23.7 × 18 cm—captures a pivotal scene from the tale of loyalty and vengeance. Shun'ei, a master of the ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") school and pupil of Katsukawa Shunshō, specialized in *yakusha-e* (actor prints), immortalizing kabuki stars in dynamic poses that blurred the line between...
About the Artist
Katsukawa Shun'ei · 1762–1819
Katsukawa Shun'ei (1762–1819) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who succeeded his master Katsukawa Shunshō as head of the Katsukawa school around 1800, continuing and advancing the school's innovations in kabuki actor portraiture. Born on December 13, 1762, into a landlord family with the surname Isoda, Shun'ei trained under Shunshō from his youth and became one of the most accomplished designers of y...