Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Yaozo III as Agemaki's Sukeroku

Object Details

• Artist

  Utagawa Toyokuni I 歌川豊国 (1769-1825)

• Label

  The role performed by Ichikawa Yaozo III (1747-1818) is that of Sukeroku, a dashing, romantic character who eventually defeats rivals for the courtesan Agemaki's affection. Although set in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter of Edo, the characters Sukeroku and his younger brother, Shimbei, are understood to represent the Soga brothers, Goro and Juro, in their vendetta to avenge their father's murder. This half-length portrait by Toyokuni, a leading designer of actor prints in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, shows the actor assuming a strong pose typical of the masculine aragoto acting style developed by Edo actors. The play Sukeroku: Flower of Edo (Sukeroku yukari no Edo zakura) has been a favorite of kabuki fans since its first performance by Ichikawa Danjuro II in the early eighteenth century. Performance of the play came to be a specialty of the Ichikawa Danjuro family line of actors; it was included in The Kabuki Eighteen (Kabuki juhachiban), a collection of the most successful plays of the Ichikawa Danjuro family. Actors from other families followed suit to make collections of their most important plays, thus establishing their link to a specific core repertoire of plays and roles.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne van Biema Collection (September 15, 2002 to January 9, 2003)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Anne van Biema Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Utagawa, Toyokuni

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Theater, Art, Actors and actresses, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Anne van Biema collection, Ukiyo-e

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints