Japan: Shini-e (memorial portrait) of Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō V (1791-1859). Utagawa Kunisada, 1859

Prints commemorating the death of an actor, artist, or musician were called shini-e (memorial portrait). Conventional shini-e portrayed memorialized figures in light blue court robes called shini sōzoku (death dresses) or ceremonial attire called mizu kamishimo (often associated with ritual suicide, called seppuku). Many shini-e included the dates of death, age, posthumous Buddhist name (kaimyo), and temple burial site, while some had death poems (jisei) by the deceased or memorial poems written by family, friends, colleagues, or fans.

Ichikawa Ebizō V (1791 - 1859) was a celebrated tachiyaku (an actor who specializes in male roles), and probably the most popular Kabuki actor of the nineteenth century. He was a scion of the great Ichikawa family of actors; although his father was a low-ranking samurai, his maternal grandfather was the great actor Ichikawa Danjūrō V.

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