Japanese Copies
Left: kabuki actor Otani Tokuji I, who specialised in comical parts, as male servant Sodesuke in the play Hana-Ayama Bunroku Soga, performed at the Miyako theatre in the fifth month of 1794.
Right: kabuki actor Sawamua Sojuro III in the role of Ogishi Kurando in the sample play in the same performance.
Object views
Stories
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Shiraku up close and copied
story by Dick Raatgever, Chris Uhlenbeck.Beautiful as they are, these two actor portraits are 20th-century copies of original prints by Tōshūsai Sharaku made in 1794. But who says a copy can't be art?