The Actor Segawa Kikunojo II as the Courtesan Hitachi in Part Two of the Play Wada Sakamori Osame no Mitsugumi (Wada's Carousal: The Last Drink With a Set of Three Cups), Performed at the Ichimura Theater from the Ninth Day of the Second Month, 1771

Ippitsusai Buncho designed this hosoban print to commemorate Segawa Kikunojo II as the courtesan Hitachi in part two of Wada Sakamori Osame no Mitsugumi, a play whose title the Art Institute of Chicago translates as Wada's Carousal: The Last Drink With a Set of Three Cups. The production was performed at the Ichimura Theater beginning on the ninth day of the second month of 1771. Segawa Kikunojo II was one of the great onnagata of his generation, and Buncho's portrait of him as the courtesan Hitachi gives sustained attention to the layered kimono, sash, hair ornaments, and bearing that defined his interpretations of female roles. The play's setting in the Wada drinking party connects the courtesan to a long tradition of bravado, loyalty, and tragedy among warrior families, themes that recur throughout Edo kabuki. Within the slim vertical hosoban format, Buncho gives the figure the full height of the sheet, with inscribed identifications above the figure aligning the print with a specific actor, role, theater, and date. This sheet exemplifies Buncho's contribution to Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e: the consolidation of named, individualized actor portraiture in a printmaking culture that had only recently moved beyond more generic actor types. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the print as part of its substantial holdings of mid-Edo kabuki actor prints.