This [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) (narrow-format) color woodblock print at the Art Institute of Chicago depicts two of Edo's leading kabuki actors in a Nakamura Theater production from the eleventh month of 1771. Nakamura Nakazo I appears on the right as Matsukaze, the famous female ghost of pine-shore lore, while Ichikawa Komazo I plays Yukihira on the left. The play, Kuni no Hana Ono no Itsumoji, draws on the classical Noh play Matsukaze and its tale of two sisters who fell in love with the exiled poet Ariwara no Yukihira at Suma Bay. The hosoban format, narrow vertical strips often issued in pairs or sets, was the Katsukawa school's signature contribution to [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) (actor prints), and Shuncho here works squarely within the house style established by his master Katsukawa Shunsho. The work is significant as evidence of Shuncho's early career within the Katsukawa workshop before he turned decisively toward the Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) style that would define his independent practice from the mid-1780s onward.
c. 1789/1801
Color woodblock print; oban triptych
About 1790
Color woodblock print; chūban
c. 1792
Color woodblock print; chuban
1780s
Color woodblock print; oban diptych
The Actors Nakamura Nakazo I as Matsukaze (right), and Ichikawa Komazo I as Yukihira (left), in the Play Kuni no Hana Ono no Itsumoji, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1771 was created by Katsukawa Shunchō (勝川春潮) in c. 1771.
The Actors Nakamura Nakazo I as Matsukaze (right), and Ichikawa Komazo I as Yukihira (left), in the Play Kuni no Hana Ono no Itsumoji, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1771 depicts sumo.
