Actor Nakamura Ganjirô as Kamiya Jihei, Taishô period, circa 1922

Dated to circa 1922, this print portrays the celebrated Kamigata kabuki actor Nakamura Ganjirō I in the role of Kamiya Jihei, the paper merchant protagonist of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's domestic tragedy Shinjū: Ten no Amijima (The Love Suicides at Amijima). Jihei is a merchant torn between his family obligations and his obsessive love for the courtesan Koharu, a role that demands sustained emotional intensity and naturalistic acting in the Osaka style. Yoshikawa's rendering would emphasize the merchant's townsman dress — a subdued kimono appropriate to a chōnin (townsman) of modest means — reflecting his deep knowledge of period clothing conventions. Nakamura Ganjirō was closely identified with this role, and Yoshikawa captures the actor's distinctive physical presence within the restrained compositional approach characteristic of Kamigata theatrical portraiture, distinct from the more exaggerated Edo kabuki tradition.