The Actor Yamashita Kinsaku II as Moshio, Wife of Ito Sukekiyo, in the Play Izu-goyomi Shibai no Ganjitsu, Performed at the Morita Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1772

Ippitsusai Buncho's [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) print, held by the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts Yamashita Kinsaku II as Moshio, the wife of Ito Sukekiyo, in Izu-goyomi Shibai no Ganjitsu, performed at the Morita Theater in the eleventh month of 1772, the start of the kaomise season. Ito Sukekiyo is one of the warrior figures in the Soga revenge complex, and the play title's reference to Izu calendars and theatrical New Year nods both to the regional setting and to the kaomise tradition of unveiling new acting contracts. The role of Moshio belongs to the category of warrior wives whose fates are bound to their husbands' political and martial fortunes, and Yamashita Kinsaku II, an Edo onnagata of standing, would have brought the figure to life through nuanced costume and gesture. Buncho's design uses the tall, narrow hosoban format to foreground the actor's body and dress, with the printed inscriptions identifying actor, role, play, theater, and month. Within Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) of the late 1760s and early 1770s, Buncho's [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) or kabuki actor prints are recognized as a coherent corpus that documents the casting and repertoire of the Edo theaters with unusual precision, and the Art Institute of Chicago's holding contributes to that documentary record while also preserving a fine example of his mature portrait practice.