写楽 (1995)

In 1791, during the Kansei era, Okan, a street performer watching a stage show, discovers Jurobei, an actor from Inari-chō, bleeding after his foot was crushed by the ladder Ichikawa Danjūrō was climbing. Since Jurobei is no longer fit to work as an actor, she draws him into the world of street performance. He comes to be known as “Tonbo.” He and Okan’s group appear around Yoshiwara and elsewhere, doing small-time business, and he also frequents kabuki theaters, helping paint stage backdrops. Tsutaya Jūzaburō, a publisher with popular ukiyo-e artists such as Santō Kyōden and Kitagawa Utamaro on his roster, is serving a 50-day sentence of handcuff confinement because a sharebon written by Kyōden ran afoul of the authorities’ prohibition. Worried about the future, Utamaro abandons Tsutaya and switches to another publisher. Hoping to make a comeback, Tsutaya takes on actor prints, enlisting Ikugorō, Tetsuzō, and others. One day, Tetsuzō brings Tsutaya a picture said to have been drawn by an unknown man. It is not particularly skillful, but Tsutaya is drawn to its overwhelming venom. He immediately tracks down the artist, Jurobei, and tries to persuade him to draw actor prints. Thus the mysterious artist Tōshūsai Sharaku is born—what Ikugorō calls “the pleasure of imitating people.” Though Sharaku arouses resentment among the public and actors, he takes the world by storm. Utamaro is quick to recognize this talent and, fearing for his own standing, searches for the mysterious artist, at last discovering that he is Jurobei. Seeing Jurobei, Utamaro remembers him as the street performer who had often appeared in Yoshiwara. What is more, Jurobei had been close to Hanasato, Utamaro’s favored courtesan, and jealousy burns within him. He plots to have the two driven out of Edo. As they flee, saying, “The world is fireworks above hell,” they are soon captured by their pursuers. Jurobei is tortured, while Hanasato is sold to a squalid brothel. In 1797, on the day of Tsutaya’s funeral, among the grand procession and the onlookers are Utamaro, Ikugorō (Jippensha Ikku), Tetsuzō (Katsushika Hokusai), and Jurobei, who has returned to street performing.