The Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II, Possibly as Matsuya Soshichi, in the Play Chiyo no Hajime Ondo no Seto (Beginnings of Eternity: The Ondo Straits in the Seto Inland Sea) (?), Performed at the Kiri Theater from the Twenty-seventh Day of the Seventh Month, 1785
Katsukawa Shunkо̄
c. 1785
Medium
Color woodblock print; hosoban; center sheet of triptych
Dimensions
32 × 14.2 cm (12 1/2 × 5 5/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
77385
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...