Samurai and Wakashu early 18th century Miyagawa Issh Miyagawa Issh, unlike most artists of the Ukiyo-e school, did not design woodblock prints but focused exclusively on creating deluxe paintings depicting kabuki actors, courtesans, geisha, sumo wrestlers, as well as more risqué erotic images. He studied under Miyagawa Chshun (1682-1752), who had been strongly influenced by the pioneering ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu, and Issh’s works reflects the stylistic mannerisms of that lineage. Most surviving paintings by Issh, including this one, date to the early eighteenth century, especially from around the Kyh era (1716-1736).Here the artist has create a rare image of two men, one young one older. On the left is a gender-ambigious wakashu-gata (young kabuki actor) with gentle features and an older, hirsute suitor who is trying seduce him by grasping his sleeve. The kerchief the young man dons is a called a yar bshi which wakashu actors wore after shaving their foreheads (a mar