The Actor Iwai Hanshirō IV as the Wet Nurse Shigenoi
From Act 10 of the play “Koinyōbō Somewake Tazuna” [The Loving Wife’s Particoloured Reins]

Tōshūsai Sharaku is considered among the most elusive woodblock print designers of Edo- period Japan. He created fewer than two hundred portraits of Kabuki actor during his brief career. Known for his unflinching realism and expressive exaggeration, his portraits, in the distinctive format of oban tate-e, capture emotional depth and character. Although underappreciated in his day, Sharaku’s bold style had a lasting impact on French art in the nineteenth century, when his prints caught the eye of several artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec.