Half-Length Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Danjuro V as Kazusa no Gorobei Tadamitsu in Act Three of the play Kitekaeru Nishiki no Wakayaka (Returning Home in Splendor), Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the First Day of the Eleventh Month, 1780
Katsukawa Shunkо̄
c. 1780
Medium
Color woodblock print; aiban
Dimensions
32.2 × 22.5 cm (12 11/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
21854
About the Artist
Katsukawa Shunkо̄ · 1743–1812
Katsukawa Shunkō I (1743–1812), born Denjiro Kiyokawa in Edo (modern Tokyo), emerged as a pivotal figure in ukiyo-e woodblock printing. His early life remains sparsely documented, but by the late 1760s, he had begun illustrating books such as *Talks about Debut Plays* (*Kaomise shibai banashi*, 1766). Shunkō studied under the master Katsukawa Shunshō, founder and leader of the Katsukawa school, an...