Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries

Dear
I have a problem with two color woodblock prints of Toshusai Sharaku:
The Actor Sakata Hangoro III as Fujikawa Mizuemon
and Actor Morita Kan'ya VIII as the Palanquin-bearer Uguisu no Jirôsaku.
Is it possible that this is original period, it seems to me that its later reprint, at least one of them.
Thank you very much for your comments and support.

I think you may not understand the rarity of original Sharaku's. Most of his designs from their original blocks are known to exist in numbers often not more than 2 or 3. And most of those were long since snapped up by museums and institutional collections. Given that, these two would seem to be in far too pristine of condition anyway. They're far too bright and the impressions have too hard of an edge to be 220 years old.

There may well be a publisher's mark on the back of your prints, identifying the modern printing houses of possibly Takamizawa or Adachi.

First, Sharaku's prints are very rare. The odds of finding one are slim. Comparing your prints to known originals at the Boston MFA, I think they are both later reprints. The second one has (hard to see in your photo) what appears to be a censor seal below the signature which would date it to half a century after the original print.

Cheers,
Stan

Further to my comments above, the original prints were very high quality printings with impregnated mica in the inks used. Original prints will show flaking off of the mica where the print was bent or creased. See the upper right of this print at the Boston MFA:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/actor-morita-kanya-viii-as-the-palanquin-bearer-uguisu-no-jir%C3%B4saku-234882

Of course, the presence of mica in the inks is not definitive proof of an original print. We have a very nice, high quality copy of a Sharaku (Otani Oniji as Manservant Edohei) with mica in the ink. (below)

Cheers,
Stan

Thank you very much for all the valuable information. I'm captivated by ukiyo e and still learning, hope that so fare so good ;-)
Best regards
TomG

Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries |