Shunsho | Actor Iwai Hanshiro IV

Katsukawa Shunsho ( 1726–1792）

Katsukawa Shunsho may not be the most well-known name in Ukiyoe, but his impact on the form and its history are immeasurable. He is credited with inventing the genre of actor portrait prints, and his students included none other than Katsushika Hokusai, who probably is the most well-known Japanese woodblock print artist in history.

Born in 1726 at the dawn of the Ukiyoe era, Shunsho initially studied with the Torii school, but soon broke away to form his own school, one that would eventually carry his name.

He invented the idea of Kabuki actor portraits that actually looked like the actors they were depicting. He also produced the first “big head” full-face images. And he showed actors (and all were men, at the time) in their dressing rooms. This was revolutionary because, up until this point, print artists had portrayed the roles played by actors, but not the individual thespians themselves. The ravenous theater-going public ate them up, and a 100-year craze was born. 

This is not to discount Shunsho’s portraits of beautiful women (bijin). His were lovely, indeed, and sought after.  But for the most part they were paintings, not prints. He only produced a handful of prints of women. He died in 1793.