Ichikawa Monnosuke II as a Lord Holding a Banner

Katsukawa Shunei's portrait of Ichikawa Monnosuke II as a Lord Holding a Banner, dated to around 1791, depicts the actor in a role of elevated rank, captured in the moment of taking up a banner as a visual signifier of leadership. Ichikawa Monnosuke II was a respected performer in the Ichikawa acting line, working within the strong-character tradition that the family had cultivated for generations. Shunei, a senior figure of the Katsukawa school, gives the actor the specific facial likeness that defined late eighteenth-century Edo ukiyo-e yakusha-e, while the banner and martial costume situate the figure within a play of historical or quasi-historical setting. The composition isolates Monnosuke II against an unworked ground so that pose and prop carry the full weight of characterization, in the manner that the Katsukawa school had developed for its theatrical portraits. The work exemplifies the close coordination between the Edo kabuki season and the print publishers, with Shunei contributing to a steady supply of images that tracked leading performers across plays and venues. The Cleveland Museum of Art preserves the print and documents it at https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.81, where it joins a substantial holding of Katsukawa school yakusha-e illustrating the careers of Edo's principal late eighteenth-century actors.