Description
Katsukawa Shunshō portrays Ichikawa Danjūrō V’s Shiromasu-baba role as an old woman bent forward beneath a head covering. A textured cloak gives the body a rough, weighty surface, while the rustic setting supports the role’s distinct appearance. The performer’s transformation is carried through age, clothing and stance rather than through an ordinary likeness.
Dated to the twelfth month of 1786, the print was produced in ink and color on paper. Its theatrical subject gives the image a particular kind of human interest: we encounter someone deliberately becoming someone else. Shunshō preserves the performer’s identity without dissolving the role into biography. The work can therefore be read as a record of theatrical transformation, with the precise character name retained rather than replaced by an invented plot.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Katsukawa Shunshō collection.
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