The Actor Asao Tamejuro I as Drunken Gotobei in the Play Yoshitsune Koshigoe Jo, Performed at the Ichimura Theater in the Ninth Month, 1790

A second Shun'ei treatment of Asao Tamejūrō I as drunken Gotōbei in Yoshitsune Koshigoe Jō, this hosoban print in the Art Institute of Chicago documents the ninth-month 1790 Ichimura Theater production of the play. Comparison with the related print from the same year reveals how an artist might depict the same role in different productions, and how the Katsukawa school's commitment to capturing specific moments of performance meant producing more than one print of a recurring role-actor pairing. The figure here, again caught in the kinetic posture of the sambasō dance, demonstrates Shun'ei's developing ability to register kabuki movement within the static frame of the hosoban sheet. The print is also useful as evidence of the Ichimura Theater's repertoire in the year — Edo theaters often staged the same plays at different houses in the same season, each production offering its own casting and emphasis — and of the dense, fast-cycling print market that responded to those theatrical events.