The Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX 1769

This is Kitao Shigemasa’s ‘The Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX’, a woodblock print currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work presents a stylized figure within a shallow pictorial space. The actor's robes are adorned with geometric patterns and crests that draw attention to the surface and flatness of the picture plane. Note how the flowing lines of the garments contrast with the rigid grid-like designs, creating a dynamic tension between movement and stasis. This tension is further emphasized by the actor's pose, caught mid-gesture, seemingly frozen in time. Shigemasa disrupts traditional perspective, challenging the viewer's sense of depth and spatial orientation. The superimposition of text and image flattens the visual field, drawing attention to the materiality of the print itself. The lines and color blocks become integral components of a semiotic system, encoding cultural meanings related to theatre and identity. In this print, Shigemasa seems less concerned with mimetic representation and more interested in exploring the surface as a field of signs, capable of conveying complex cultural meanings. The print challenges fixed notions of representation, inviting us to see the artwork not as a window onto the world but as a construction of signs and symbols.