Actor Sawamura Sôjûrô III as Oda Kazusanosuke Harunaga in “Muromacho Chronicle in Kana Script” (“Kanagaki Muromachi bundan”)

Katsukawa Shunei portrays the leading-man actor Sawamura Sojuro III in the role of Oda Kazusanosuke Harunaga, the kabuki disguise of the unifier Oda Nobunaga, in a production of Kanagaki Muromachi Bundan. The print belongs to a coordinated set of single-figure portraits documenting the cast of this Muromachi-period chronicle, a strategy the Katsukawa school used to allow collectors to assemble entire ensembles from individual sheets. Sawamura Sojuro III, a major tachiyaku or male-lead actor of the Tenmei era, is presented here in court-warrior attire, his stance commanding and his face rendered with the specific likeness that distinguished Katsukawa actor prints from the more generic Torii-school imagery they displaced. As Katsukawa Shunsho's foremost pupil, Shunei had absorbed the workshop's distinctive approach to Edo [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e): long, fluid line for costume, precise observation for facial features, and economical use of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) and color to focus attention on the head and hands. The image both advertised the actor's current run and offered a durable likeness for the household kabuki shrine maintained by Edo's enthusiastic theater fans. Shunei would soon emerge as one of the most influential Katsukawa designers of the 1790s, capable of competing with the rising stars Toshusai Sharaku and Utagawa Toyokuni. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression as part of its broad survey of Katsukawa school kabuki actor prints, where its connection to the companion sheets of the same production can be traced.