44 Ochiai Yoshiiku 1833 – 1904 Ichikawa Danjuro IX as Fujiwara no Shihei

signature: Ochiai Yoshiiku; artist’s seal: Keisai gain

In this diagonally composed, almost magical portrait, the most celebrated actor of the Meiji era, Ichikawa Danjuro IX (who held the prestigious stage name from 1874 to 1903), appears as the wicked courtier (kuge aku) Fujiwara no Shihei from the kabuki play Sugawara denju tenarai kagami (“Mirror of Calligraphy Teachings of Sugawara”). Shihei was the Left Minister under Emperor Daigo who, through deceit and intrigue, succeeded in exiling the Right Minister Sugawara no Michizane (also known as Kan Shojo) to the island of Kyushu. The historical scholar Michizane (845–903), renowned as a poet and calligrapher, was later deified as Tenjin, the god of learning and calligraphy, still venerated by students in Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan today.

The bust of the scheming Shihei, with the faint bluish villain’s makeup (aku), was adapted by Yoshiiku into a smaller format after the large horizontal triptych depicting the same powerful portrait by Toyohara Kunichika, created after the premiere of the main kabuki play about Sugawara’s fate (originally an Osaka bunraku puppet drama from 1746) in a star-studded cast in the autumn of Meiji 30 (1897) for the publisher Fukuda Shojiro. On Yoshiiku’s smaller print, framed in vivid purple with emblems, no publisher’s mark is indicated.

The subdued palette, the soft blue-tinted face, and the barely visible black ornaments on the robe printed in lacquer over ink and polished using the tsuyazuri technique emphasize the dark, demonic nature of the role. The refined draftsmanship, diagonal composition, and psychological intensity of expression reveal Yoshiiku’s affiliation with the late Utagawa school and his pursuit of a more realistic, introspective representation of actor portraiture typical of the Meiji period.