The Actor Ichikawa Komazo III as Sukeroku c. 1793 - 1797

Katsukawa Shun'ei created this woodblock print depicting the actor Ichikawa Komazo III as Sukeroku in Japan, sometime around the late 18th or early 19th century. The image creates meaning through visual codes that would have been familiar to audiences of the Kabuki theatre. Kabuki was popular among the merchant classes of Edo-period Japan, and prints like these served as publicity for the plays and actors. Here, the actor is shown in costume, complete with sword and umbrella, standing in front of a blossoming cherry tree, all markers of status and wealth. The prints were produced and sold in a commercial market, and the success of an actor depended in part on the popularity of these images. We can better understand this artwork by looking at its connections to the institutions of theatre and art in Edo-period Japan, using playbills, theatre reviews, and artist biographies as resources. Doing so reveals the contingent nature of art and its dependence on social and institutional contexts.