Katsukawa Shunsho (1726-1792) | Actors Ichikawa Monnosuke II, Iwai Hanshiro IV and possibly Iwai Karumo conversing backstage | Edo period, late 18th century

Louis Gonse (1846-1921)

Gerhard Pulverer (b. 1930)

Doitsu Puruvera korekushon ukiyo-e hanga meihinten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Pulverer Collection], exhibited at the following venues: 

Matsuzakaya Department Store, Osaka, 27^th December 1990 - 8^th January 1991

Matsuzakaya Department Store, Ginza, 24^th - 29^th January 1991

Narazaki Muneshige, ed., Hizo ukiyo-e taikan, Puruvera korekushon [Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western Collections: The Pulverer Collection] (Tokyo, 1990), no. 34.

Doitsu Puruvera korekushon ukiyo-e hanga meihinten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Pulverer Collection] (Tokyo, 1990), p. 34, no. 1-37.

Eight designs by Shunsho depicting actors backstage are known, dating to about 1781-83. Centre stage of this design is Iwai Hanshiro IV (1747-1800); a leading female impersonator of the day. As was the norm even offstage, Hanshiro wears female clothes – here a black haori jacket over a pink kimono – conforming to the expectation that onnagata actors would live in a female manner all the time. He is conversing on what appears to be a backstage landing with male lead actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II (1743-1794); standing on their left is another actor, possibly pupil and attendant of Hanshiro IV, Iwai Karumo (1772-1844), clutching a pair of geta.¹

1. Timothy T. Clark et al., The Actor's Image (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1994), #463, p. 431 and cat. no. 95, pp. 268-9.

Other impressions of the same print are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 21.4293; the British Museum, museum number 1906,1220,0.140; and the Art Institute of Chicago, reference no. 1925.2364.