The Actor Nakayama Tomisaburo I as Lady Tokiwa (Tokiwa Gozen) (?) in the Play Kimmenuki Genke no Kakutsuba (?), Performed at the Ichimura Theater (?) in the Eleventh Month, 1791 (?)

This hosoban print in the Art Institute of Chicago, identified as the left sheet of a possible diptych and dated to about 1791, shows Nakayama Tomisaburō I as Lady Tokiwa (Tokiwa Gozen) in the eleventh-month Ichimura Theater production of Kimmenuki Genke no Kakutsuba. Tokiwa Gozen was the mother of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a tragic historical figure whose role often appeared in kabuki productions drawing on the Genpei War cycle. Nakayama Tomisaburō I was an onnagata of distinction, and Shun'ei renders him with the subtle refinement appropriate to a noble female role: the kimono pattern is precisely registered, the hair arrangement detailed, the facial features individualized within the Katsukawa nigao-e tradition. The print's identification as the left sheet of a now-fragmented composition suggests that a companion sheet, possibly showing the young Yoshitsune or another related figure, would have completed the staged tableau. Even as a single surviving sheet, however, the print documents one of Tomisaburō's roles with characteristic Katsukawa precision.