Otani Tokuji I as the Retainer Sodesuke in "Flowering Irises: A Soga Vendetta of the Bunroku Era" (1794): Art, History and Details

Otani Tokuji I as the Retainer Sodesuke in "Flowering Irises: A Soga Vendetta of the Bunroku Era" (1794) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Tōshūsai Sharaku (Japanese, active 1794–95).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Ōtani Tokuji I (1756–1808) portrays a servant in a play that follows two brothers as they pursue a villain who murdered their father and older brother and who stole their family’s secret scroll. This design belongs to a category of Japanese prints called “actor images” (yakusha-e or 役者絵). They were collected by fans of popular Kabuki actors. Kabuki is a kind of entertainment that got its start in the early Edo period, evolving from dance performances with simple storylines to long plays with complex plots, elaborate sets, and full musical accompaniments. Performers wear showy costumes and heavy makeup and strike poses called mie at critical moments in the narrative. Dialogue is spoken in a stylized way that resembles singing.

Object facts

• Title: Otani Tokuji I as the Retainer Sodesuke in "Flowering Irises: A Soga Vendetta of the Bunroku Era"
• Date: 1794
• Creator attribution: Tōshūsai Sharaku (Japanese, active 1794–95)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: 36.2 x 25.2 cm (14 1/4 x 9 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.206

A detail from the museum

The clenched fist and mouth express the character’s determination.

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

Further reading listed by the museum

• Howard Conley Hollis. "The Edward Loder Whittemore Collection of Japanese Prints." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4 (April 1930): 64-66.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.