The Actor Ishimura Kamezo Holding an Umbrella over the Actor Nakamura Kiyozo, as the Courtesan Matsuyama

Ishikawa Toyonobu produced this image of actors in character using woodblock printmaking, a process rooted in both craft and commerce. First, the design would have been drawn and then transferred to a block of wood, usually cherry. A carver would then painstakingly cut away the areas not intended to receive ink, leaving a raised surface. This block would be inked, and then paper laid on top and rubbed to transfer the image. Each color required a separate block. So this image, with its delicate pinks and greens, would have involved a fair bit of labor. The resulting prints were not ‘high art’ in the Western sense, but rather a popular commodity. They were relatively inexpensive and widely available, feeding a public appetite for images of celebrities, akin to magazines or posters today. Appreciating this context helps us see how printmaking democratized art in 18th-century Japan, connecting artistic skill with broader social trends.