Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/29

 decide whether or not all of these were issued at once, and as the performances lasted about two months each, it is quite possible that the prints representing them came out in two or even three instalments.

Besides the ōban bust-portraits there are known seven other ōban actor prints. All of these show two full-length figures and all but one—a night scene—have white mica backgrounds. As there are two actors in each it is far easier to identify the scenes depicted than it is when one actor is shown alone. There is not now any disagreement among experts as to the rôles represented in them, but it has remained for the present catalogue to point out that the plays they record were the ones immediately following the fifth month productions at the three theatres for which the ōban bust-portraits had been issued. Two of these productions began in the seventh month of 1794 and the other in the eighth month.

It is convenient to turn next to the hosoye, and of these there are 83 extant which are accepted as authentic. As this number is three times that of the ōban bust-portraits there have been more chances for differences of opinion regarding their attribution, but fortunately many of them, especially those with decorated backgrounds, fall obviously into sets which can be identified with a high degree of assurance, and it is equally fortunate that a quite large number of single sheet subjects, through the costumes and actions they depict, can be attributed beyond reasonable doubt. In regard to the last mentioned class we would express special thanks to Dr. Ihara for his quotations from the Yakusha Ninsō Kagami, a compilation of theatrical comment contemporary with the plays, no copy of which exists in America, for these have been of the utmost assistance in settling a number of points which otherwise would have remained open to question.

Details which will be found in the text need not be given here, but we may say that the first result of arranging chronologically those hosoye of which the dating seemed sure was to obtain abundant confirmation of the idea now generally accepted by Japanese writers on Sharaku, that all his earlier prints were signed “Tōshūsai Sharaku gwa,” and all his later ones merely “Sharaku gwa.” Another conclusion is that all of the hosoye are connected with plays produced between the seventh month of 1794 and the first month of 1795. We must note that this idea is not wholly supported either by Herr Rumpf or Dr. Ihara, and that we cannot produce absolutely positive evidence to sustain it. We can and do show, however, that all except 3 out of the 83 hosoye that survive may be put with