Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/28

 is preserved in its entirety there are others for which only the barest outlines of the plot have been found. Our work in this catalogue therefore cannot be regarded as absolutely definitive. Fortunately, however, the researches made in the three great collections of source material have enabled us to state definitely the subjects of the great majority of Sharaku’s prints, in some cases confirming previous attributions and in others giving entirely new ones. We have tried, throughout the catalogue, to draw attention to identifications which seem open to doubt, and to give our reasons for making certain decisions in controversial cases. We believe that the rather startling conclusions to which we have been forced by the evidence obtained cannot be controverted, except perhaps in minor details, by future investigators or through any new source material that may come to light.

Sharaku’s actor prints naturally fall into three categories according to size. The largest of these is the ōban, approximately 15×10 inches; the second is the aiban, about 13×9 inches, and the smallest is the narrow hosoye which measures about 13×6 inches. These dimensions refer to full-size, untrimmed examples; individual prints which in some cases have been trimmed, of course are slightly smaller.

Of the ōban prints the majority are large heads or bust-portraits on a dark ground covered with mica. When Rumpf’s and Ihara’s conclusions about these were compared it was found that all the prints on which they agreed were attributed to three performances, all of which were put on at Edo in the fifth month of 1794. Furthermore it was found that for all but two of the few prints on which their reports disagreed, either Rumpf or Ihara had made an attribution to one of these same three performances. The question immediately arose of whether the two prints that were dated tentatively and inconclusively apart from the rest had not in reality been issued with all the others of the same size and type. That question was settled, however, and to our satisfaction when the Boston collection yielded documentary proof that both the actors represented in these two prints had played parts in the fifth month performances to which the costumes and hair arrangements shown would be appropriate.

Our first addition to the evidence about Sharaku therefore is a statement of the strong probability that all the ōban prints with dark mica grounds were issued in connection with the fifth month performances of 1794. There are 28 of these that survive, twenty-three showing single figures and five giving double bust-portraits. It does not seem possible to