TOYOKUNI: oban tate-e (36.3 x 25.4 cm.); a full-length portrait of the actor Sawamura Sojuro standing in a brown cloak pulling a sword out of its scabbard, grey shading to black background, from the series Yakusha butai no sugata-e "Portraits of actors on stage", signed Toyokuni ga and published by Izumiya Ichibei--good impression, slightly faded, trimmed into image bottom, small holes restored, framed and glazed but margins visible

Details

TOYOKUNI: oban tate-e (36.3 x 25.4 cm.); a full-length portrait of the actor Sawamura Sojuro standing in a brown cloak pulling a sword out of its scabbard, grey shading to black background, from the series Yakusha butai no sugata-e "Portraits of actors on stage", signed Toyokuni ga and published by Izumiya Ichibei--good impression, slightly faded, trimmed into image bottom, small holes restored, framed and glazed but margins visible

Lot Essay

See James Michener, Japanese Prints, from the Early Masters to the Modern (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle and Co., 1959), pl. 205, p. 193 where the author notes that in his opinion this print is the best of the series.