Ichikawa Monnosuke II in a Shibaraku Performance

Dated 1780 (An'ei 9) and held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this Katsukawa Shunkō print depicts Ichikawa Monnosuke II in a Shibaraku performance. Shibaraku ("Stop a moment!") was one of the most famous and frequently performed scenes in the kabuki repertoire — the eponymous moment when the hero bursts onto the stage to halt an injustice, accompanied by a ritualized shout of the title word. Codified as a signature piece of the Ichikawa acting family in the late seventeenth century, Shibaraku featured spectacular red kumadori makeup, an oversized costume with the family's triple-rice-measure crest (mimasu-mon), and a sword so large it required custom stage-handling. Ichikawa Monnosuke II (1743–1794) was a leading Edo aragoto specialist of his generation and a frequent subject for the Katsukawa school. Shunkō's 1780 print captures the iconic Shibaraku pose — sword raised, eyes glaring, costume blazing — and would have functioned as both a commemoration of a specific performance and as a permanent record of the actor's command of the role. The Metropolitan's [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) (full-color brocade-print) example demonstrates the technical sophistication of late-An'ei multi-block color printing in Edo and preserves one of the period's defining theatrical images.