The Actor Nakamura Noshio I as the Third Princess (Nyosan no Miya) in the Play Fuki Kaete Tsuki mo Yoshiwara (Rethatched Roof: The Moon also Shines Over the Yoshiwara Pleasure District), Perfromed at the Morita Theater from the First Day of the Eleventh Month, 1771

Ippitsusai Buncho's hosoban print depicts the Edo kabuki actor Nakamura Noshio I as the Third Princess, Nyosan no Miya, in the play Fuki Kaete Tsuki mo Yoshiwara, performed at the Morita Theater beginning on the first day of the eleventh month of 1771. The work is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's Japanese print collection. The Third Princess is a character from the classical Tale of Genji tradition who was repeatedly adapted into Edo kabuki, and the play's title plays on the layered meanings of a rethatched roof and a moon shining over the Yoshiwara pleasure district. The eleventh-month opening would have placed this work within the kaomise or face-showing season, when new acting contracts were unveiled. Nakamura Noshio I was an onnagata of standing in Edo kabuki, and Buncho's design treats the princess's elaborate costume and ornamented hair as central pictorial subjects within the tall, narrow hosoban format. Buncho is recognized as one of the most important Edo ukiyo-e designers of his decade-long career, producing yakusha-e that combined careful likeness with attention to costume and pose. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves the inscribed identifications that allow modern viewers to associate the image with a specific role, actor, theater, and lunar month, providing a fine-grained record of the Edo theatrical year.