Actor Jitsukawa Enjaku II as Danshichi 1926

This woodblock print of Actor Jitsukawa Enjaku II as Danshichi by Natori Shunsen, now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, it's all about lines. I am interested in this artist’s ability to suggest so much with so few lines. Each precise mark seems to be imbued with intention and care. There is a tension in the actor’s face between fierceness and vulnerability. I wonder if the artist felt that too, trying to capture such contradictory emotions. The face is so smooth and pale, whereas the hair is a stark, dense black; a really striking contrast. Shunsen wasn’t just making a picture; he was capturing a feeling, a moment, a state of mind. I can see echoes of other printmakers, like Utamaro, in the way Shunsen uses line to define form and evoke emotion. Ultimately, these artists build on each other, riffing on the same themes, the same challenges. You get a sense of looking through time, of seeing how artists respond to their predecessors, building on their ideas, pushing them in new directions.