The Actor Arashi Otohachi I as Numataro, the Retainer of Utou Yasukata, in Part Two of the Play Kogane no Hana Gaijin Aramusha (Gold Flowers: The Triumphal Return of Fierce Warriors), Performed at the Nakamura Theater from the First Day of the Eleventh Month, 1766

This Ippitsusai Buncho hosoban print, in the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts the Edo kabuki actor Arashi Otohachi I in the role of Numataro, the retainer of Utou Yasukata, in part two of Kogane no Hana Gaijin Aramusha, a play whose title is translated by the museum as Gold Flowers: The Triumphal Return of Fierce Warriors. The production was staged at the Nakamura Theater beginning on the first day of the eleventh month of 1766, marking the start of the kaomise season for that year. Numataro belongs to the tradition of loyal retainers central to Edo kabuki, where domain politics, warrior service, and family obligation were repeatedly dramatized for an urban audience. Buncho was active in Edo ukiyo-e from about 1765 through the early 1770s, and his yakusha-e of this period helped to shape the conventions of named-actor portraiture in the hosoban format. The single figure here, placed on the slim vertical sheet, presents costume, sword, and stance as the carriers of both role and likeness, with inscribed identifications anchoring the image to a specific production. As with many of Buncho's actor prints, the Art Institute of Chicago's impression supports continuing scholarship on the casting, repertoire, and visual culture of the Edo theatrical world at the height of the kaomise tradition.