Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1793) was an ukiyo-e painter and print designer of the Edo period, the leading actor-portraitist of his generation and the founder of the Katsukawa school.
He was born in 1726 and trained in Edo, the city that was the centre of the booming woodblock-print trade. He took the name Katsukawa and gathered a circle of pupils that would dominate theatrical printmaking for decades. Among the young artists who passed through his studio was a boy who later became Katsushika Hokusai — Shunshō was Hokusai's first teacher.
Shunshō's great innovation was in the depiction of kabuki actors. Before him, actor prints tended toward generic, idealised faces. Shunshō instead drew the actors as recognisable individuals, capturing the features and bearing of specific performers in specific roles. This turn toward likeness reshaped the genre and gave the public portraits of the stars they came to see.
He is especially known for the illustrated book Ehon Butai Ōgi ("A Picture Book of Stage Fans"), made with Ippitsusai Bunchō, in which actor portraits are framed within fan shapes. Beyond the theatre, Shunshō was also an accomplished painter of beautiful women, working in delicate brush-painted hanging scrolls that show a refinement equal to his printed work.
The Katsukawa school he founded carried his approach forward through pupils such as Shunkō and Shun'ei, who extended the bold actor-portrait style into the close-up bust format. Through this lineage, and through Hokusai, his influence reached far beyond his own lifetime.
Shunshō died in 1793. He is remembered as the artist who gave the kabuki actor a true face in print, and as a foundational teacher in the history of Japanese art.
If you want to know more about the artist: Katsukawa Shunshō - Wikipedia
