Ryukosai Jokei

• Japanese: 流光斎如圭 (Ryûkôsai Jokei)

Ryûkôsai Jokei, also known as Taga Jihei, was a Kamigata-based ukiyo-e artist, active c. 1777-1809.

He is known for his images of kabuki actors (yakusha-e), and in particular has been identified as perhaps the first to depict onnagata not as the women they were pretending to be, but more accurately, as men playing a female role. For example, the onnagata depicted in the illustrated book Ehon niwa tazumi (1790) have decidedly masculine facial features.

References

• Joshua Mostow, "Wakashu as a Third Gender and Gender Ambiguity through the Edo Period," in Mostow and Asato Ikeda (eds.), A Third Gender, Royal Ontario Museum (2016), 34.