Sharaku (the ukiyo-e artist) 

Ukiyo-e (literally pictures of the floating world) is a word for Japanese woodblock prints. Another word is hanga. They could be mass produced, were inexpensive, and featured subjects popular with the lower classes. They became immensely popular during the Edo period from 1603 to 1867 when Japan was mostly closed to the outside world.

Regional rulers, daimyo, were required to spend half their time in Edo (Tokyo) under the watchful eye of the shōgun as a means of preventing a recurrence of the civil wars that had wracked Japan for centuries. The daimyo brought their households and a considerable number of soldiers with them. The result was that Edo became a “city of bachelors.”  The earliest ukiyo-e subject was chosen to take advantage of that market opportunity; shunga, aka pornography. The appeal broadened when prints of high-class courtesans (bijinga or pictures of beautiful people) wearing the latest fashions and sporting elaborate hair styles were introduced. Other subjects developed. The landscapes made famous by artists like Hokusai and Hiroshiga came relatively late in the Edo Period.

Pictures featuring Kabuki actors were popular for most of the Edo Period. Kabuki was a style of theater that appealed to the lower classes, unlike the more sophisticated nō theater preferred by the aristocracy.  The most famous artist of kabuki prints was Toshusai Sharaku. Nothing is known about him, though it is believed that he may have been a kabuki actor himself. He suddenly began to produce kabuki pictures in 1794, and for ten months produced over 140 prints before suddenly returning to obscurity. His portraits (ōkubi-e) of real kabuki actors are famous for the depictions of the actor’s personalities in their roles and the emotional intensity they displayed. His portraits are considered to be among the finest ever painted.

One of Sharaku’s innovations was the use of ground up mica for the background on his prints, creating stunning effects. Utamaro, another famous ukiyo-e artist, became jealous of Sharaku and began using mica in his prints, too.