A type of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print which shows one or several actors in a stage pose or costume. A principal theme in ukiyo-e, many examples depict aspects of theater life. The earliest depictions of the theater were part of genre screens of the late Muromachi and early Edo periods. Early examples of screens depicting scenes in and around Kyoto *rakuchū rakugai zu 洛中洛外図 often included a stage set in one corner, with further details on screens of *kabuki 歌舞伎 plays *kabuki zu 歌舞伎図. As kabuki gained popularity, the audience's interest in individual artists increased, and by the end of the 17th century, yakusha-e were being published. Because kabuki fans were so curious about the different actors and because they made interesting portraits, yakusha-e were attempted by many artists. However, one family eventually became the traditional bearer of the responsibility for designing the posters kanban-e 看板絵 and announcements banzuke-e 番付絵 of the actors appearing on stage.
The Torii school *Torii-ha 鳥居派 artists had a monopoly on the production of posters and sign-boards, and their depictions of actors' figures were characterized by the cliche "gourd-shaped legs and catfish outlines" hyōtan ashi, mimizu gaki 瓢単足, 蚯蚓描. A descendant of the famous Torii Kiyonobu 鳥居清信 (1664-1729) and Kiyomasu 清倍 (?-1716) who first did prints focusing on individual actors, currently paints kabuki posters for the Kabukiza 歌舞伎座 theater in Tokyo. Outside the Torii school, Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信 (1686-1764) and Nishimura Shigenaga 西村重長 (1697?-1756) established their own styles of yakusha-e. In the middle of the 18th century, Torii Kiyomitsu 鳥居清満 (1735-85) took the lead with attractive yakusha-e in red and a few color prints *benizuri-e 紅摺絵.
After a period of interest in perspective prints *uki-e 浮絵 showing scenes inside the theater, there was a dramatic return to a highly personalized depiction of actors as in the likeness pictures nigao-e 似顔絵 of Ippitsusai Bunchō 一筆斎文調 (act. 1760-1800) and Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章 (1726-93) which showed the stars outside of the theater in their daily life. Tōshūsai Sharaku 東洲斎写楽 (act. 1794) may have created some of the most individualistic yakusha-e of the type known as large head pictures *ōkubi-e 大首絵 which focused closely on one actor's torso.
The general term, yakusha-e, may be used more broadly to name prints showing the stage, more specifically known as: *kabuki-e 歌舞伎絵, shibai-e 芝居絵, gekijō-e 劇場絵, gekiga 劇画.