Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1792), published by Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, Actors of the Kabuki Theater, Tokyo/Japan, 1917.

Color woodcut, paper, 30x39 cm, signed with the artist's stamp

Portraits of kabuki actors from the work "Images of Kabuki Actors on Fans," containing designs by two authors Ippitsusai Bunchō and Katsukawa Shunshō. Originally published in 1770, these woodcuts capture the intense expressions, elaborate costumes and makeup of actors in popular kabuki roles. The figures are often composed in the shape of a fan. Considered a masterpiece of Japanese acting printmaking, these portraits were part of a new trend in creating images of actors with individualized features and expressive faces that more closely resembled the real actor than the idealized portraits that had previously dominated the genre.

This woodcut is from the second edition of the work in 1917. (Taisho 6). An analogous edition can be found in the Smithsonian - National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, among other places.