Kabuki Actors Ichikawa Yaozō III, Onoe Matsusuke I, and Sawamura Sōjūrō III

Description

Ichikawa Yaozō III, Onoe Matsusuke I and Sawamura Sōjūrō III are the named performers in Katsukawa Shunshō’s three-sheet actor composition. Three upright actors occupy separate panels beneath flowering branches, with pale clothing at the left, a dark costume at the center and an elaborate patterned robe at the right. Their differing garments give the ensemble variety while the overhead branches connect the wider composition.

Dated to the eleventh month of 1786, the triptych was printed in ink and color on paper. Its broader format allows the performers to occupy related parts of a shared field, making the original composition more than a single figure portrait. Shunshō preserves recognition while giving the actors a collective presence. The work invites attention to how several individuals can belong to one dramatic arrangement without surrendering the distinct identities through which audiences knew them.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Katsukawa Shunshō collection.