Ichikawa Ebijuro II as Ude no Jirobei

This Osaka kamigata-e [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) by Gigadō Ashiyuki, dated to within his active period (c. 1813-1833) and held by the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1992.86), depicts Ichikawa Ebijūrō II in the role of Ude no Jirobei. Ebijūrō II had succeeded to the stage name of his father Ichikawa Ebijūrō I, the celebrated Osaka tachiyaku whose 1827 death was commemorated by Shunkōsai Hokushū in a widely circulated memorial print, and Ashiyuki's portrait of the younger actor documents the inheritance of the Ichikawa Osaka acting line into the late 1820s and early 1830s. The role of Ude no Jirobei belongs to the kataki-yaku (villain) category that the Ichikawa line specialized in, and the print captures the actor in the streetwise-outlaw register that gave the role its dramatic charge. The print is preserved as a woodblock print at the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1992.86), acquired by the museum in 1992 as a later addition to its small Osaka kamigata-e holdings. Ashiyuki's composition follows his mature template: a tight half-length view, careful inscription of role and actor, and restrained color treatment in the kamigata-e tradition of psychological intensity over decorative spectacle. The print's parallel position to his Arashi Rikan II portrait at Cleveland (1976.61) gives the museum a paired record of two Osaka stars of the late 1820s as recorded by the same designer.