Japan: Kabuki actor Ichikawa Omezou in the role of Yakko Ippei. Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Toshusai Sharaku (1770 - 1825), c. 1794. Toshusai Sharaku is widely considered to be one of the great masters of the woodblock printing in Japan. Little is known of him, besides his ukiyo-e prints; neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known with any certainty. His active career as a woodblock artist seems to have spanned just ten months in the mid-Edo period of Japanese history, from the middle of 1794 to early 1795.