The Japan World Stamp Exhibition PHILANIPPON '01, Tokyo, August 1st to 7th, was an unique occasion for the Japanese postal administration to have a look back at its past that is marked by wonderful reproductions of art. The most interesting of them present the treasures of the woodblock print, a technique known under the name of Ukiyo-e. Nicely issued in big formats (a true revolution of the 1950s), these stamps also fully deserve the name of "beauties", a fact that the "expanding" title of this page tries to emphasize.

    Toshusai Sharaku (17??-1801?) was one of the great masters, and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses, of the Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock print. In addition he represents one of  the greatest enigmas in the world of Ukiyo-e, and one of the great mysteries in all of world art.

We know quite nothing of him, other than his prints; not even his true name, or the date of his death, is known with any certainty. Even more astonishing is his active career as a woodblock artist, that seems to have spanned a mere ten months, at the end of 1794 and start of 1795. He appeared from nowhere, instantly attained the greatest heights of genius (being ranked along with Rembrandt and Velazquez), and disappeared with equal rapidity. The idea that his super-realistic, often not exactly flattering portraits earned him the dislike of the public and the hatred of the actors is no more than a legend, though it does make his sudden disappearance more plausible. It is certainly true that the Japanese public were not prepared for Sharaku's incisive realism or his psychologically well-founded caricature, which were both revolutionary in Ukiyo-e art and may well have been responsible for his extremely brief career. His work did not become popular among collectors in Japan until Western artists and collectors discovered him in the late nineteenth century. Sharaku's prints are very rare. In 1997 one of his works, in a not very good condition, was sold at an auction for US$ 296,000.

As part of the Philatelic Week 1984 series, the Japan P.A. has issued two stamps reproducing some famous works of the master.

    Below you can admire the Ukiyo-e by Toshusai Sharaku, "Ootani Oniji as Edobei", issued for PHILANIPPON '01, in both perforated and self-adhesive versions.

    As next we present  the Ukiyo-e print by Toshusai Sharaku, "Iwai Hanshiro as Shigenoi" (again the self-adhesive and the perforated versions).

      And now the last three of them, "Segawa Kikunojo as Oshizu, Tanabe Bunzo's wife", "Sakata Hangoro as Fujikawa Mizuemon" and "Ichikawa Omezo as Yakko Ippei" (all are taken from the perforated stamps miniature sheet).

    Last not least, the tabs below the stamps were foreseen by the Japan PA to personalize the stamps. The author of this site profited by this occasion and he propose you, below on the right, a portrait of himself as the actor Ichikawa Omezo as Yakko Ippei.

     Links to pages on this site, dedicated to the Japanese stamps:

• Looking Back at Beauty (Hishikawa Moronobu)

• Japan Art Series

• Ando Hiroshige

• Prefectures