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](/glossary/hosoban) print in the Art Institute of Chicago, identified as the left sheet of a possible [diptych](/glossary/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.