Matsumoto Koshiro III as Kikuchi Hyogo: A Real Likeness by Ippitsusai Buncho | 一筆斎文調 菊池兵庫

Ippitsusai Buncho (一筆斎文調) was, together with Katsukawa Shunsho, a pioneer of the realistic actor likeness. At a time when actor prints still relied on idealized faces, Buncho and Shunsho began drawing the actual features of the stars of the kabuki stage, and this hosoban print from the autumn of Meiwa 7, 1770, is a beautiful example of that new realism.

The inscription in the upper left corner tells the full story of the moment: the date, the Nakamura Theater, the role, and the actor. It records the performance of the kabuki play Hegi Uchi Chuko Kagami at the Nakamura Theater in the autumn of 1770, and the actor Matsumoto Koshiro III, one of the most popular performers of his day, in the role of Kikuchi Hyogo.

Koshiro III stands beside a stone lantern, sheltering beneath a great bull's-eye umbrella with a sword in hand. The tall, narrow hosoban sheet frames the scene with an unmistakable tension: his stern eyes, his rugged whiskers, and his powerful stance are captured with a vividness that made the new school of actor portraiture famous.

For collectors today, the print offers a double pleasure: the visual drama of a lone samurai caught at a breathless instant, and the rare certainty of a design whose year, theater, role, and actor are all recorded on the sheet itself, a document of the kabuki culture of Edo in 1770.