Actors Ichikawa Danjûrô V as Watanabe Kiou Takiguchi and Nakamura Nakazô I as Taira no Kiyomori in the “Shibaraku” scene from “Forest of the Nue Monster: Target of the Eleventh Month” (“Nue no Mori Ichiyô no Mato”)

This Katsukawa Shunsho yakusha-e is a richly documented diptych composition pairing two of Edo's most celebrated kabuki actors in a 'Shibaraku' scene drawn from 'Nue no Mori Ichiyo no Mato' (Forest of the Nue Monster: Target of the Eleventh Month). Ichikawa Danjuro V appears as Watanabe Kiou Takiguchi, while Nakamura Nakazo I plays his nemesis Taira no Kiyomori. 'Shibaraku' was the signature aragoto interruption scene associated with the Ichikawa Danjuro lineage, a hugely popular set piece in which a heroic warrior bursts onto the stage to halt an unjust execution; Edo audiences anticipated it as the dramatic centerpiece of any eleventh-month kaomise performance. Shunsho responds by treating both actors as individualized portraits within a single coordinated composition, with Danjuro V's massive sleeves and confrontational stare set against Nakazo's coiled menace as Kiyomori. The work is a key example of Edo ukiyo-e at the moment when the Katsukawa school had matured into the dominant force in actor portraiture, defining the multi-sheet diptych and triptych formats that would shape yakusha-e production for the next generation. Held in the Art Institute of Chicago, the impression is also a valuable historical document of the late eighteenth-century kabuki rivalry between two of the period's most charismatic stars and of the way the Katsukawa school used the printed page to extend the theatrical event into the homes of Edo's print-buying public.