The First Nakamura Tomijuro as an Angry Woman Standing in a Room

Description

Nakamura Tomijūrō I portrays an angry woman near a gridded sliding screen, wearing long pale robes and raising an arm across or behind the neck. The gesture gives the figure a pointed theatrical presence beside the ordered architecture. Katsukawa Shunshō keeps performer and character distinct, allowing the body’s arrangement to carry the role’s intensity without inventing the surrounding cause of her anger.

Katsukawa Shunshō’s color woodblock print dates to 1772 or 1773. Ink and color on paper hold a theatrical character outside the passage of the stage event, where the relationship between performer and role can be considered at leisure. Its appeal lies in that layered encounter, preserving both a named individual and the different person made present through his performance.

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