Toshiusai Sharaku was a Japanese painter who some say was the name of a professional performer of ‘No’ named Saito Jurobei in the service of Hachisuka, Lord of Awa. The details of his birth and death are unknown but he was working in the late 18th. cent. A master of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints especially of Kabuki theatre actors executed between 1794/95, he produced around 140 prints issued over a very short period and are therefore scarce today.