Yakusha-e

However, prints of kabuki scenes and of other elements of the world of the theater are very closely related, and were more often than not produced and sold alongside portraits.

Many other prints, meanwhile, take something of the opposite tack; they show kabuki actors and scenes very elaborately, intentionally obscuring the distinction between a play and the actual events it seeks to evoke.

These artists, beginning with Katsukawa Shunshō, depicted actors elaborately and idealistically, but with the realistic details of individualized faces.

It is possible that his prints may have even affected kabuki itself, as actors sought to match their performances to the dramatic, bombastic, and intense poses of the art.

Most of these drew strongly upon the Torii style, and were essentially promotional works, "generalized, highly stylized billboards meant to attract the crowd with their bold line and color".

Though his works lack the unique energy of Sharaku's, he is considered one of the greatest artists in "large-head" portraits, and in ukiyo-e in general for his depictions of other subjects and in other formats.

The sentiments of the above paragraph notwithstanding, there appeared a 開花年齢 [A Flowering Age] of 役者絵 (c.1860-75), when actors’ names could again be printed alongside their image, even if any scenic background was added by other artists (which was normally acknowledged), and, more importantly, date identifications were ascribed by means of single Censor Seal.

There prints, of Kabuki virtuosi, were abundant, numbering more than the usual press runs, they included images of, for example: young 一 代目河原崎権十郎 [Kawarazaki Gonjuro I ]; the newly renamed 四代目中村芝 [Nakamura Shikan IV]; the aging 四代目市川小團 次 [Ichikawa Kodanji IV]; and the 15-year-old, virtuoso 女形 [onnagata; ladies’ roles] 三代目 沢村田之助 [Sawamara Tanosuke III].