Kiyohiro was a member of the third generation of the so-called Torii school, who were the dominant force in Kabuki prints in the 18th century. The founder of the school, Kiyonobu (ca. 1664 - 1729) was one of the first (if not the first) woodblock artist to produce large images of Kabuki actors. It was only with the rise of the Utagawa school, under Toyokuni I, that the Torii were supplanted as the primary recorders of the Kabuki world.

This print is printed in the technique called benizuri-e (literally, "pink printing pictures"); it was the earliest technique for producing printed (as opposed to hand-coloured) color woodblock prints, and used two color blocks, a light green, and a light red.

Toyonobu was a noted Ukiyo-e painter and print artist; his artistic influences included his teacher Shigenaga and Okumura Masanobu. Masanobu, in addition to being a talented woodblock artist, is thought to have helped develop the process for printing multi-coloured prints, replacing the previous labour-intensive hand-colouring techniques, and thereby making mass production of colour woodblock prints economically feasible.

The round seal beaneath the characters on the left reads kiwame, "inspection concluded." It was the first censor's seal to be used on Japanese woodblock prints.

Note the shimmering background to these two Sharaku prints (the originals had them too). This was formed from ground mica (mica is a mineral which forms sheets of glittering crystals) mixed with metallic powders - the light one is probably mixed with powdered silver, and the dark one is possible a copper alloy called shakudo. This mixture was sprinkled on wet freshly printed ink, and adhered to the prints.

This technique was only used for a few years, as it was quickly banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate (the military government of Japan) as too luxurious. Among other famous prints which use this technique are the prints of Utamaro, famous for his images of women.

Sharaku is unusual in that he is a very "individual" artist. Japanese society prizes homogeneity; everyone is supposed to be, and act, the same. In fact, the Japanese have a saying "the nail which stands up is the one which gets hammered down", meaning that people who are different are pressured by those around them to conform.

So Sharaku is notable not just because he is a great artist, but also because he is an artist who developed a startlingly and significantly new style, all on his own - the first Japanese woodblock artist to do so (the other two being Hokusai, and Yoshitoshi).

The onnagata Segawa Kikunojō III (1751 - 1810) used the name Segawa Kikunojō III from 1774 to 1801. Born in Ōsaka, he was one of the most famous actors in Kabuki history. He was extremely rich (his yearly salary in 1790 was several times that of other good actors) but, unlike most actors, he was economical, saving his earnings and investing in houses and land; his wealth was the subject of much gossip.

Ichikawa Danjūrō V held this name from 1770 to October 1791, and Ichikawa Danjūrō VI held it from November 1791 to 1799; without knowing the exact date of the print, we cannot be certain which one is portrayed here.

All three are wearing geta, the high wooden sandals created to keep the feet clean and dry in inclement conditions; the onnagata is wearing a rain-cape made out of straw.

The larger characters in the upper left hand corner give the name of the actor, and the smaller ones give the role he is appearing in; Kabuki fans would have immediately known which play was being illustrated (and often the scene). The artist's signature is in the lower left corner.

The evil samurai Nikki Danjo transformed himself into a giant rat, and in this guise, he snatched a precious scroll, and ran away with it in his mouth, to hide beneath the palace floorboards.

Matsumoto Koshiro was the most famous Nikki in history; even today actors playing Nikki wear Koshiro's crest and costume pattern.

The extemely fugitive vegetable dye used in the purple ink of early prints is perfectly preserved in this example.

The two small seals on the right side in the lower right corner are censor's seals, which indicate that the print was approved for publication by the government censor responsible for ensuring that regulations intended to maintain public morality were not breached. The upper one reads "approved", and the lower one reads "Dragon/9" - a date given in the Chinese 12-year cyclical zodiac calendar system (often seen in the West today on placemats in Chinese restaurants).

Hais crossed eyes indicate he is in a mie, a striking static pose taken by a Kabuki actor at key moments in the plot; wooden clappers and music are often used to emphasize the effect.

Ashiyuki was a printmaker of the Ōsaka school; although Edo had the largest woodblock-print and Kabuki establishments in Japan, the other principal cities, including Ōsaka, also had them.

As a member of the Ōsaka School, Ashiyuki introduced some new techniques into Ōsaka prints. One of the new techniques he probably was the first to use was the application of gofun, a white powder made by heating and pulverizing the shells of oysters and clams. It was used alone, or mixed with other pigments to lighten the colour tone; it was sometimes rubbed directly on the picture surface, or sprinkled to give the effect of falling snow.

Sadafusa started his artistic career in Edo, but later moved to Ōsaka. He was a pupil of Kunisada, the dominant woodblock print artist of the mid-19th Century.

This print is novel, as it is the first one in this show to show the use of Prussian Blue, an imported chemical dye first used in prints in the late 1820's. Prior to that time, all the Japanese pigments had been vegetable-based, and were all very fugitive (i.e. subject to quick fading in the presence of light). Even after this, though, until the introduction of aniline dyes in the 1860's, all the other colours continued to be vegetable-based.

The new blue was so popular that for a while, there was an entire genre of prints named aizuri-e (literally, "blue pictures"); in which almost the entire print was printed in shades of blue.

Waka-onnagata is a style of play which emphasizes softness, the charm, the refinement and the seduction of a male character.

His hair is looped back in the topknot which indicated a samurai, literally "one who serves", a member of Japan's ruling military class.

Toyokuni II, also known as Toyoshige, was a student and son-in-law of Toyokuni; he took over the latter's go (literally, "art-name" - similar to the pen-names of Western writers) after Toyokuni died. Toyokuni is usually referred to as "Toyokuni I", to distinguish him from the pupils who used that go in later generations.

In this very early print of Kunisada's, the look of his master Toyokuni I's work is still very strongly seen; Kunisada had yet to develop his own distinct style.

Sawamura Sojuroō V, an outstanding actor of male roles, used the name Sawamura Tosshō from 1831 to 1844. He was the son of a servant in a chaya (tea-house), and his mother was the daughter of a farmer. When he was young, he seems to have been a pet of all the actors, and received the patronage of stars like Onoe Kikugoroō III and Matsumoto Koshiroō V. The latter wanted to make an actor of him, and took him to Ōsaka, where he remained to study. He went on to have a dazzling career, in which he was a major star in both the Edo and the Kamigata theaters. In addition, he had the reputation of being an excellent dancer, a refined poet, and a master of the tea ceremony.

This print also is the first one to show the use of bokashi, the shading in the sky at the top. This is a shading or gradation in the depth of the color, produced by a number of different techniques, such as:

• wiping the blocks after the application of the ink;
• using brushes with varying color intensity and moisture level;
• rubbing the block with a damp cloth before applying the ink.

The evil samurai Nikki Danjo transformed himself into a giant rat, and in this guise, he snatched a precious scroll, and ran away with it in his mouth, to hide beneath the palace floorboards.

Danjuro played opposite Matsumoto Koshiro, the most famous Nikki in history, in 1818, when Koshiro played this role (see the earlier print in this show of him in this role, by Toyokuni I, on the left wall); here Danjuro is seen in turn giving his rendition of Nikki.

The object held in the actor's right hand is a small drum.

Onoe Kikugoro III (1784 - 1849) used that name from 1815 to 1848. He was one of the first and most accomplished actors in Kabuki history to perform both male and female roles. Besides playing vengeful ghosts, his specialities included adolescent males and older wise men, but his range also extended to villains. He was acclaimed as an all-round actor, or 'man of a thousand faces', and his ability to do the miraculously quick changes so popular in his era allowed him to play seven to nine roles in one play.

He studied under Kunisada, and took the name Kuniaki as his go (literally, "art-name" - similar to the pen-names of Western writers) following the common practise of using one syllable of his master's art-name in his own.Indeed, so powerful was the Utagawa school after Toyokuni I's time that almost every Japanese print artist of note in the 19th Century either had one of those two characters in his go, or was a student of one who did.

As usual with this publisher, Naka-ni Kinshodo of the Terifuri-cho district, this print is meticulously printed in almost surimono quality. Surimono (literally, "printed things") were privately issued and distributed prints, mostly produced in small numbers. Most had poetry (usually comissioned by private poetry clubs) or calendars on them, and were often used as invitations, notices, holiday and greeting cards, etc. They were usually very finely printed, with elaborate and unusual printing techniques such as use of powdered metals; many important innovations later widely used in woodblock prints in general were pioneered in surimono.

The role was based on a real man, a fish monger in the city of Sakai, who killed someone in the middle of winter in 1697. The dead body was hidden in the snow and discovered in Spring, after the melting of the snow. This event was dramatized for the first time in 1698; half a century later, Danshichi became the hero of the sewamono (dramas dealing with the lives of ordinary people) "Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami" in 1745, which is still part of the current Kabuki repertoire, and one of the most popular plays. It contains the most famous murder scene in Kabuki, the murder of Mikawaya Giheiji by his son-in-law Danshichi.

This print also uses a number of the elaborate techniques described in the panels for the two last prints on this wall. Look for kirazuri (a glittering effect caused by the application of mica flecks) along the top of the print; karazuri, an embossed printing effect used in the white stripes of the kimono, and shomenzuri, a polishing technique, in the black cartouche around the bridge scene.

The image in the cartouche was drawn by the famous wood-block landscape artist Hiroshige, and the actor bust in the foreground by Kunisada; the two artists collaborated in this manner on a number of series in the 1840's and 1850's. The depiction of rain by means of masses of slanting lines was an innovation of Hiroshige's.

The restaurant view in this print (and the provincial image in the print immediately below this one) are a result of an attempt by the government to ban the publication of actor prints, in one its periodic crackdowns to stiffen public morality. The wood-block print world immediately circumvented this restriction, as they did with so many other attempts by the government to limit their artistic freedom.

We see him here after he has transformed himself into a giant rat, and in this guise, snatched a precious scroll, and run away with it in his mouth, to hide underneath the floor of the palace; a spectral image of him in his human form hovers in the background.

In the ensuing scene under the floor, the loyal samurai Arajishi Otokonosuke (the figure on the right) uses his iron fan to strike the rat on the forehead. The rat is then transformed into his true self, disappearing through a trap door out of which Nikki is seen to rise, with the scroll still held in his mouth, and a crescent-shaped wound from the blow on his forehead. He floats into the air, and disappears into a cloud in the upper reaches of the theatre, with Otokonosuke posturing in aragoto ('rough-stuff') style on the main stage below.

It concerns a group of samurai who were left masterless in 1701 by the execution of their master, for assaulting a court official whom he felt had insulted him. After over a year of patient waiting and plotting, they succeeded in avenging him by killing the court official. Although they had committed murder, they had done so for that most noble of reasons (to the Japanese) - in obedience to their duty. As a result, they were allowed an honourable death, and were buried in the temple next to their master, where their graves may still be seen, to this day.

With little embellishment, the true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence and honor which all good people (but especially samurai) should persevere in their daily lives. It was rapidly turned into a Kabuki play, which quickly became (and remains) one of the staples of the Kabuki repertoire.

The profession of shirabyoshi developed in the 12th century. They would perform for nobles and high-ranking samurai, and at celebrations; although some shirabyoshi would give birth to nobles' children, this was not their purpose. They were required to be educated, being able to both read and write; they were talented poets, musicians, and singers.

There are a number of Kabuki plays in which the shirabyoshi Sakurako appears; the most likely one to be the source here is the drama "Meoto Dojoji". There, she appears with another shirabyoshi, Hanako; the plot concerns a woman who is possessed by the spirit of a wronged woman. At the end of the play, she climbs the town's bell tower and destroys it.

This print also displays the technical sophistication which the Japanese wood-block print reached at the end of its life. The black hat contains an intricate wavy pattern produced with shomenzuri (see the other print of this pair for a description of this technique).

The collar contains karazuri, literally, "empty printing"; this is an embossed un-inked printing effect, a technique called gauffrage in the West. It is produced by hard pressure on an un-inked block, with the print dampened, leaving whatever pattern is carved in the block embossed into the paper.

The wooden panel to the side makes use of mokumezuri, the use of a densely grained woodblock which has been soaked in water to emphasize the pattern of the grain, and is used to print areas of unfinished woodwork portrayed in the print. It is sometimes called itame mokuhan, literally "imitation woodgrain".

The dark shading at the top of the print is bokashi; it was produced by a number of different techniques, such as:

• wiping the blocks after the application of the ink;
• using brushes with varying color and moisture levels;
• rubbing the block with a damp cloth before applying the ink.

The black areas of his robe contain an intricate geometric pattern produced with shomenzuri; literally, "front-printing", it is a polishing technique. A carved block was placed behind the print and the printed surface rubbed with a hard polisher (often a boar's tusk).

Instead of being numbered, the cartouches contain syllables that may be arranged in an alphabet-like order called iroha.The iroha is a Japanese poem thought to date from the 9th or 10th Century. It contains one instance of each character of the Japanese syllabary (Japanese is written with symbols which represent all the possible noun-vowel pairs). Once widely used as an ordering for teaching the syllabary, it has now mostly been replaced with the gojūon , an ordering based partly on Sanskrit, which keeps the signs with the same consonant together.

Note the small holes down the right hand edge of this print. These are marks from where this print was bound into a volume of prints by a Japanese collector, at about the time it was produced. Since these prints are easily damaged by exposure to light, it is because many were bound into volumes in this way that we have so many prints today in such excellent condition.

Actually, there are two kinds of holes found in prints - the perfectly round ones are worm-holes (one hazard of keeping paper in what are effectively blocks); the holes from the binding process (the pages were sewn together) have little tiny tears around them, from where the needle was forced through.

Notice the strong wood-grain seen in the grey sky just above the bridge; this is an indication that this particular print was one of the first ones produced from these blocks, before the grain of the wood was filled with dried ink.

The two regional styles of actor prints were derived, in part, from different methods of acting. The manner of Edo acting, aragoto ("wild business") involved tales of bravado and heroism that seemed well suited to the temperament of Edo, the center of shogunate and military power since 1603. In contrast, the Kamigata style of acting combined a gentle sensuousness with an amusing helplessness that became a standard for wagoto ("soft style") acting in Ōsaka, the mercantile center of Japan.

The Ōsaka school was largely commercial so Hirosada primarily produced promotional art for theaters and actors. The print making industry in Ōsaka was much smaller than in Edo (prints from Edo outnumbered those published in Ōsaka by a margin of at least 20 to 1) and only a tiny handful of artists were able to make a fulltime living at printmaking. The "amateur" status of the highly skilled Ōsaka designers, coupled with the small number of prints, made for a unique genre of printmaking.

A haiku is a short poem in seventeen syllables, usually arranged in three 5-7-5 syllable phrases; they often attempt to capture a mood or a feeling. They are a relatively late form in the field of Japanese poetry.

There are a number of plays based on the rivalry between the two celebrated samurai, Fuwa Banzaemon and Nagoya Sanza, who are in love with the same woman (usually Katsuragi). Their confrontation is precipitated by their bumping of scabbards as they pass one another in the crowded streets, and prevented from ending in fatality by the intercession of the female figure. The heroes from the play are easily identified by their distinctive kimono: Banzaemon's with a cloud and lightning pattern, Sanza's with a swallow and rain pattern.

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX belonged to the trio of stars who dominated the Kabuki world around the turn of the 20th Century. (The two others were Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Sadanjō I.) He spent time and energy pioneering a new genre called katsureki (enactments of historical incidents performed in every detail), but the Tokyo audience was more receptive to his amazing performances in the classic Kabuki roles.

Each Japanese samurai family had a traditional mon, similar in function to Western coats of arms. Kabuki actors had them as well, although unofficially, and fans were familiar with the mon of all the leading actor families, as well as those of the various theatres in which Kabuki was performed.

The actor's mon can be clearly seen in this print, and the two kaomise prints to its left. In this print, in addition to the canonical position (on both sides of the top front of the kimono), each actor wears their mon on their obi (Japanese belt), and it is used as the basic element of the decoration on the lower edges of their kimonos.

The falling autumnal maple leaves in the background of the image sets the feel for the time of year, the beginning of the Kabuki season. In Japan, maple viewing is the autumnal equivalent of the famous cherry blossom viewing in the spring.

Mitate-e were among the most common and important genres in ukiyo-e printmaking. The mitate method used by ukiyo-e artists borrowed from poetic techniques, and resulted in pictorial designs that offered imaginative layers of meaning that co-existed, rather than blended.

One of the chief characteristics of Edo-period culture was the awareness on the part of its relatively knowledgeable audience that they were engaged in a "doubling" experience (shuko) in which a work of art was reflective of itself and its contemporary audience as well as referential toward earlier works or historical periods.

In uikiyo-e, mitate takes many forms. Contemporary figures are substituted for historical ones, or contemporary events are meant to represent events from the past. In this print, the actors are substituted for the Seven Gods of Good Luck, in their traditional seating pattern.

• The new Year or early spring run (hatsuharu) starting on the 15th day of the 1st month
• The satsuki run starting on the 5th day festival in the 5th month
• The summer (natsu or bon) run starting on the 15th day of the 7th month at the time of the bon festival of the dead. main actors were on holiday for this run and performances were undertaken by younger actors
• The autumn (aki) or farewell (onagori) run starting on the 9th day of the 9th month.

Banzuke (the program) were the very first kind of Kabuki-related print; a banzuke from 1675 is the oldest known Kabuki-related print. Probably the publishers (woodblock prints were, after all, a commercial business) soon discovered there was a ready market for Kabuki-related material among Kabuki fans, and prints of actors started appearing shortly thereafter.

Ichikawa Danjuro VIII committed suicide in Osaka on August 8, 1854, at the age of only 31. As many as 200 shini-e were produced in reaction to the widespread grief over his death.

Prints which show the actual mechanics of Kabuki - behind-the-stage scenes, or whatever - are very rare; this one, showing how a prop horse was used, is a valuable record of Kabuki staging techniques at the time.

The particular game here appears to be one called iroha karuta, in which pairs of cards are assigned to one of the elements of the Japanese syllabary (Japanese is written in part using symbols, hira-gana, which represent all the possible noun-vowel pairs.).

The game was set up by laying out all the cards face up. To play, a card which was one half of a pair was selected, and the object of the game was to find and seize the matching card of the pair before the other contestants; the process would then be repeated.

The industry turned the actors into cultural icons and leaders of contemporary fashion. As they do today, the actors had huge fan clubs and supplemented their earnings by endorsing products.

Once the prints became valuable, the books were broken up, and the prints sold separately.

In this print you can see the one hazard of storing prints in this manner; worms have eaten through the book, and produced the gaps at the top; this is often seen in vintage woodblock prints. Also commonly seen are rows of small holes along one edge, made when the prints were sewn into a volume.