The Actors Onoe Matsusuke I and Ichikawa Omezo I at a Teahouse

This oban color woodblock print at the Art Institute of Chicago depicts two kabuki actors, Onoe Matsusuke I and Ichikawa Omezo I, at a teahouse, blending the yakusha-e (actor print) tradition that had defined Shuncho's early Katsukawa-school training with the social setting of fashionable Edo leisure. Both actors were leading figures of the late-eighteenth-century Edo kabuki stage, and depicting them off-stage in a teahouse setting placed them in the kind of urban social space that was simultaneously the subject of Shuncho's bijin-ga production. The print demonstrates the bridging of genres that ran through his career: even as he moved decisively toward Edo bijin-ga in the Kiyonaga manner from the mid-1780s, he retained the Katsukawa school's commitment to actor portraiture and continued to produce works that combined the two subjects. The full oban format permitted substantial figure development for both actors as individual portraits within the teahouse setting.