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

This yakusha-e portrays Nakamura Ganjirō I in the role of Kamiya Jihei, the paper merchant protagonist of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's celebrated double-suicide drama Shinjū: Ten no Amijima. Ganjirō was the defining interpreter of this role in the early twentieth century, renowned for his nuanced portrayals of townsmen caught between duty and passion. Yoshikawa renders the actor in character, likely depicting Jihei in the anguished domestic setting of the play, with close attention to the merchant's everyday kosode and obi as worn on the Osaka stage. The print dates to circa 1922, placing it within Yoshikawa's early creative-print output when he was drawing on Kyoto's kabuki tradition and his own expertise in historical dress to produce actor likenesses distinguished by costume accuracy rather than the stylized exaggeration common in Edo-period yakusha-e.