The Actors Onoe Kikugoro I and Sanogawa Ichimatsu I dressed as mendicant monks (komuso)

Recorded by the Art Institute of Chicago as a color woodblock print in oban format and benizuri-e classification dated to around 1749, this image pairs the kabuki actors Onoe Kikugoro I and Sanogawa Ichimatsu I dressed as komuso, the mendicant monks of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism who were instantly recognizable by their characteristic basket-shaped tengai hats woven of straw and worn over the entire head. The komuso, who wandered Edo playing the shakuhachi flute for alms, occupied a liminal social position that included a number of samurai-class members who used the anonymity of the basket hat for ronin politics and disguised travel, and the trope of the actor disguised as a komuso became one of the most popular variations on the actor portrait. Ishikawa Toyonobu pairs his two leading onnagata in matching komuso disguise, multiplying the cross-gender theatrical charge that distinguishes his actor portraiture. Benizuri-e classification confirms the use of two or three printed color blocks over the black-line printing, the technique Toyonobu was among the first to popularize. The Art Institute print is an essential document of mid-Edo komuso iconography and of the rich interplay between actor portraiture, religious disguise, and cross-gender performance in Toyonobu's mature work.