Ichikawa Monnosuke II as a Lord

Dated to the 1780s and held by the Cleveland Museum of Art, this Katsukawa Shunkō print depicts Ichikawa Monnosuke II as a lord. The lord role (typically tachiyaku, the leading-male specialty) was a category that allowed major actors to display gravitas, command, and political nuance, often in roles drawn from medieval war tales or historical dramas. Ichikawa Monnosuke II's range as an aragoto specialist included not only the explosive Shibaraku-style heroic roles for which he was most famous but also more restrained noble characters in which authority was conveyed through stillness and bearing rather than action. Shunkō's portrait captures the formal court costume — likely an elaborate naoshi or kamishimo formal dress — and the actor's distinctive features that had become familiar to Edo audiences across two decades of performances. The 1780s date places this work in Shunkō's mature middle period, when his draftsmanship was at its most confident and his portrait likenesses among the most accurate in the Katsukawa school. The Cleveland Museum of Art's collection of Katsukawa-school portraits of Monnosuke II makes it possible to follow this single actor's career across multiple roles, costume changes, and stylistic developments — a valuable cross-section of the Edo kabuki star system.