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Matsumoto Kōshirō IV as the Fishmonger Gorōbei, or, to give him his full name and title in proper Japanese fashion, Sanya no Sakanaya Gorōbei.
The costume is blue with white checks. The green of an under kimono shows at the sleeves, and the black collars are coated with lacquer. The blue of the tonsure has now faded, but strong touches of pink remain about the eyes. The pipe is rose and yellow.
The subject is one of the least rare of Sharaku’s bust-portraits on mica and seven impressions of it were found in American collections. It has been reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 270, as Rumpf number 5 and by Kurth, Noguchi, Nakata and others. The earliest reproduction, however, is on a fan which a young girl is carrying in a pillar-print by Chōki—one of Sharaku’s most famous contemporaries.
Ōban. Dark mica ground. Signed: Tōshūsai Sharaku.
The Art Institute of Chicago (Buckingham Collection).
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