Iwai Hanshirō IV as a Woman with a Sword

This 1791 print by Katsukawa Shunei (1762-1819), held in the Cleveland Museum of Art, depicts the onnagata Iwai Hanshiro IV in a role calling for an armed female character, the figure shown holding or drawing a sword in a moment of theatrical decision. Shunei was a senior designer of the Katsukawa school, the Edo ukiyo-e studio that under Katsukawa Shunsho had transformed yakusha-e, or actor prints, by replacing generic stage beauties with portraits of identifiable performers. Iwai Hanshiro IV was one of the most celebrated onnagata of the late eighteenth century, and his repertoire ranged from the standard wagoto courtesan to the more demanding aragoto-tinged roles in which a female character takes up weapons, a stage tradition that gave the onnagata significant dramatic range. Sword-wielding women in Kabuki appeared in vendetta plays, military tales adapted from earlier puppet drama, and supernatural pieces in which a possessed or vengeful figure confronts her enemies. Without a specific play or scene cartouche the exact role recorded in this sheet is open to interpretation, but the visual language is consistent with Shunei's other actor prints of the period: precise outline, controlled color, and a likeness that allowed Edo audiences to identify the performer immediately. The Cleveland impression preserves the strong block-printed pigments and assured drawing of Shunei's mature manner. As an example of Katsukawa school yakusha-e from the early 1790s, the print contributes to a substantial visual record of how a single celebrated actor was depicted across multiple roles, and how Edo ukiyo-e publishers sustained an ongoing dialogue between the theater and the print market. Reference: Cleveland Museum of Art, accession 1921.1287.