158 works and sketches survive of the Japanese artist known only by the art name Tōshūsai Sharaku. Almost all were made over a ten-month period in 1794–1795, divided into four periods:
5th month of Kansei 6 (May–June 1794) – 28 ōban prints
7th and 8th months of Kansei 6 (July–September 1794) – 8 ōban and 30 hosoban prints 11th and intercalary 11th months of Kansei 6 (November 1794 – January 1795) – 47 hosoban, 13 aiban, and 4 ōban prints 1st month of Kansei 7 (February–March 1795) – 10 hosoban and 5 aiban prints
The print sizes became progressively smaller and the focus shifts from busts to full-length portraits. The depictions become less expressive and more conventional. Two picture calendars dating to as early as 1789 and three decorated fans as late as 1803 have been attributed to Sharaku, but have yet to be accepted as authentic works of his. A number of hanshita-e preparatory drawings have also been found.
Background
In Sharaku's time the Kawarazaki-za, the Kiri-za, and the Miyako-za were the three major kabuki theatre houses of Edo: the Edo San-za.
Just over 600 copies of Sharaku's prints are known; only about 100 remain in Japan. As they are in collections scattered throughout the world general research on Sharaku's works has followed different threads in Japan and the West has proved time-consuming. Japanese researchers have better knowledge of and access to documents and literature related to Sharaku's time and conditions. On the other hand, Sharaku's works tend to be in Western collections, including prints for which only one copy is known—of which there are about three dozen. Three of these are of unknown whereabouts, known only through published photographs. The largest Western collection is the 70 pieces at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 6 of which are unique; the Art Institute of Chicago (8 unique pieces), New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Guimet Museum in Paris also have substantial collections. In 1920, Kōjirō Matsukata bought a large number of ukiyo-e prints in Paris and brought them back to Japan. These 70 pieces reside at the Tokyo National Museum, 3 of which are unique.
The prints bear no titles, and descriptive titles vary in both Japanese and English. Amongst the variations in Japanese are the numbering for the generations of actors; for example, a second-generation actor's name might have nidai () or nidaime () prepended in some sources and nisei () in others, or the generation might be absent. The list here does not give variant titles, and the titles given are not official.
Print sizes
Sharaku's prints appeared in the common print sizes ōban, hosoban, and aiban. The approximate dimensions of these sizes are:
ōban –
hosoban –
aiban –
Periodization
Sharaku's prints are divided into four periods. The prints of the first two periods are signed "Tōshūsai Sharaku" (), and the latter two only
5th month of Kansei 6 – 28 ōban prints
The 5th month of Kansei 6 fell from 29 May to 26 June 1794. 7th and 8th months of Kansei 6 – 8 ōban and 30 hosoban prints The 7th month of Kansei 6 fell from 27 July to 25 August 1794, and the eighth month from 26 August to 23 September 1794. 11th and intercalary 11th months of Kansei 6 – 47 hosoban, 13 aiban, and 4 ōban prints The 11th month of Kansei 6 fell from 23 November to 22 December 1794, and the intercalary 11th month from 23 December 1794 to 20 January 1795. 1st month of Kansei 7 – 10 hosoban and 5 aiban prints The 1st month of the 7th year of Kansei fell from 19 February to 20 March 1795.
The print sizes progressively became smaller and the focus shifts from busts to full-length portraits. The depictions become less expressive and more conventional. Two picture calendars dating to as early as 1789 and three decorated fans as late as 1803 have been attributed to Sharaku, but have yet to be accepted as authentic works of his.
First period
Sharaku's first period is made up of twenty-eight known prints, each in ōban size. They appeared in the 5th month of Kansei 6, which fell from 29 May to 26 June 1794. They depict actors in their rôles in the kabuki plays Hana-ayame Bunroku Soga, Katakiuchi Noriai-banashi, Koi Nyōbō Somewake Tazuna, and Yoshitsune Senbon-zakura.
Hana-ayame Bunroku Soga
Playwright Matsui Yūsuke's Hana-ayame Bunroku Soga (, "Blooming Iris, Soga of the Bunroku Era") is a kabuki adaptation of a true story of revenge, the early 18th-century in which the Ishii brothers Hanzō and Genzō spent 28 years to exact revenge on their father Uemon's murderer. The story enjoyed great popularity and had several theatrical adaptations.