The Actors Ichikawa Komazo II as Chunagon Yukihira (right), and Iwai Hanshiro IV as Murasame (left), in the Play Kuni no Hana Ono no Itsumoji, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1771

This Ippitsusai Buncho print in the Art Institute of Chicago, designed in hosoban format, pairs Ichikawa Komazo II as the courtier Chunagon Yukihira on the right with Iwai Hanshiro IV as the salt-maker Murasame on the left, in a scene from Kuni no Hana Ono no Itsumoji, staged at the Nakamura Theater in the eleventh month of 1771. The story of Yukihira's exile at the bay of Suma, where he is loved by the salt-making sisters Matsukaze and Murasame, was a familiar classical and noh subject reworked for Edo kabuki. The eleventh-month performance corresponds to the kaomise season, when leading Edo kabuki actors appeared together to introduce the new theatrical year. Buncho's tall, narrow sheet arranges the courtier and the saltmaker side by side, allowing the contrast between aristocratic robes and humbler working dress to anchor the composition. Both actors were among the leading performers of late-1760s and early-1770s Edo kabuki, and Buncho's reputation in yakusha-e during this short, productive phase of Edo ukiyo-e rested on his ability to capture such pairings with clarity and individualized likeness. The Art Institute of Chicago's catalog records the inscriptions identifying play, theater, month, and actors, supporting the scholarly reconstruction of Edo theatrical seasons that depends so heavily on prints like this one.